Christmas

This is was our first White Christmas and I think I prefer Christmas to be a nice 70 degress.  Anyways Ryan's big present was a new hunting rifle so he can provide for the family when the world comes to and end and we are in the middle of nowhere starving.  I got a new fancy camera that I have to learn how to use but these pictures seem pretty good.  Owen was super spoiled and loved all his toys.  He also got some clothes and when I said look at your new jacket he replied no no.  He thought I was going to put it on him. 

All he wanted was to play with his new toy and mom wanted a picture first

Moms opening his toy so hes happy

Zoom in

Toy number one he forgot about the rest of the presents.

I told him if he opened this present he would find a car he's pretty happy!

With no family to visit we drove to Dinosaur park!

It was pretty slick good thing we had a rail to hold onto

Do you see the play dough in his hands he insists on carrying around

We had a great Christmas talking with family, opening presents, visiting to the park, Ryan grilling some yummy steaks, and warming up in the hot-tub. 

Holiday Express

The Holiday Express is alot like the Polar Express.  You take a train ride up to the North Pole while the elves bring you cookies and hot coco as you hear a Christmas story.  When you reach the North Pole Santa gets on board and brings all the kids a bell.  Owen was so excited to go I asked him if he wanted to go ride a train to see Santa and get a present and he got all excited.  So we got our tickets and since we had some time to kill went to the train and tree museum. 

Did not want to pose for a picture

Owen loved the model trains.

Time to play

Train ride

Checking everyone out

Look at his big cookie.  He heard the song Frosty the Snowman and jumped up to look out the window for Frosty.

Here comes Santa and Mrs. Clause Owen hid as soon as he saw them, but he took the bell from Santa.

Bye bye train.

The train ride was just long enough.  The last 15min or so Owen was getting kinda restless ready to go.  We got lucky and had the handicap row so there was some extra room for him.  Merry Christmas!

Storybook Island

One of my faviorite things about Rapid City is Storybook Island.  It's only open Memorial Day to Labor Day but during Christmas they light it all up and have special evening openings.  One night we got all bundled up and headed out.  We told Owen we were going to see lights and Reindeer.  He was so excited to see Reindeer.  We walked around the park a couple times but decided to skip waiting in line for the train and to see Santa it was too cold.  

Since we didn't see the real Santa we stoped for a picture with the fake Santa.  As you can tell Owen is still skeptical about the statue Santa.

                                            Lights lights and more lights

                       The Reindeer Comet and Vickson were there that night.  

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was different this year with no family around.  Ryan wanted to hunt and cook his own turkey but turkeys are smart.  They knew where the line was between public and private land and stayed on the side where Ryan wasn't allowed to shoot them.  Since he didn't get one and I didn't  want to cook a big dinner for the 3 of us we went out.  Golden Corral would be the best place for Owen.  Owen sat in a high hair the whole time.  I'm guessing cause it was green and I let him play with the salt and pepper shakers.  He refused to eat anything but corn and cake.  We had a good time.  The food was better than anything I would have made and lots of different things to choose from.

Owens birthday

So it was Owens birthday and I hadn't got him a present because he already has every toy imaginable and prefers to go through mom and dad's stuff.  So I went to target and got him a book and then we took him to walmart and let him pick out a balloon and a green ball.  Green is his faviorite color.  We tried to have him take a nap but he just wanted to play with Dada.  After an hour of trying I went and got him and the first words out of his mouth were dada.  Don't let that fool you, he is still a mamas boy, dada is just more fun to chase and wrestle with.   We introduced him him to Frosty the Snowman which he loved then took him to his faviorite place the mall.  He loves to play at the mall.  We stoped by Toys R Us on the way home to see if they had anymore play dough on sale and Owen screamed the rest of the way home because he wanted to go back to the store. That evening there was a parade we wanted to go so we got all bundled up.  On the way home Owen fell asleep since he didn't take his nap so we woke him up for cake and ice cream and then sent him back to bed.  

                                 The mall

 This is how Owen feels about wearing a jacket.  He was happy once the parade started and there was a bunch of lights.

                                  Owens cake he is saying hot hot