Winter Wonderland

As I mentioned in the post about our free carriage ride, St. Louis County Parks creates a "Winter Wonderland" in one of the parks here in the city.  I really wanted to take the kids to drive through all the Christmas lights, and I somehow managed to convince Jacob to take us, so we went on Monday night!  Unfortunately, since Winter Wonderland was closed on Christmas Eve, Monday was the last time to drive through before Christmas, and everyone in St. Louis decided to go!  Traffic was INSANELY terrible.  It should have taken us 10 minutes to get to the park, but it took us about an hour and a half instead.  Cars were waiting in a line on the freeway to get off the exit, and we waited in the line on the freeway for fifteen minutes before even getting onto the exit ramp.  By the time we finally got off the freeway and then drove the mile or two down the road to the park entrance, it had taken over another hour.  It was crazy.  But I had promised Naomi a park full of Christmas lights, and we were going to give it to her!

For Jacob & me, the night was horrible.  Hours of traffic and antsy kids who just wanted to get out of their seats.  But Naomi & Aleta loved the lights, when we finally got to see them!  I took a bunch of videos--you can hear some of the exclamations from the girls in the background. 

In this next video, look for the frog lights.  He starts on the grass, then jumps & splashes into the pond.

My favorite kind of lights were the shooting star lights.  You can see them in the tree in the next video.