Zoo Lights!

 One of the other evening activities I decided to do this holiday season (with the lack of Christmas events going on and with the introduction of the daily, advent calendar in our home) was to take the family to see the Zoo Lights at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma.  Since this activity is a little on the pricey side, we have only done it one other time when Logan was a baby when Ron's brother and his wife were visiting us from South Carolina eight years ago.  But like Fantasy Lights, it is one of the few Christmas activities in our area that wasn't cancelled this year due to the pandemic.  Since Tacoma is half way between our house and Chris's and Natalee's house, I decided to call them a few weeks ago to see if anyone in their family would like to join us.  Luckily, Natalee said that she would come with Trenton and Riley, so I went ahead and bought their three tickets when I purchased ours.  After waiting a few weeks and keeping it a secret from the kids, Ella and Logan opened up the little, advent calendar door this morning to find out that we were going to the zoo tonight with their favorite cousins.  They were so excited!  After waiting all day long, we ate an early dinner and headed out into the dark to drive to the zoo for our 6:30 reservations.  Although it had been dry and cold all day long, the rain began to start a few minutes into our drive and it was raining heavily by the time we arrived there.  We all just bundled up and grabbed our umbrellas to spend an hour walking around in the rain marveling at all of the amazing, light displays set up all over the zoo!  The rain luckily stopped about half way through our time there which helped a bit as it sure was cold.  We still had a great time and Emmett was a total trooper through entire thing.  He was so fascinated by all of the lights that he never even made a peep from his stroller except for the one time when I asked him if he liked all of the lights around him.  He just sat there quietly and then in his monotone voice, said one word.  Lights.  It was so funny and so Emmett!  Here are some pictures of our fun evening tonight!

The five, older kids posing inside the classic, Zoo Lights sign inside the entrance of the zoo.

A close-up of Riley, Lia, Ella, Logan, and Trenton all masked up and ready to go!

The family picture we got walking through the beautiful, light tunnel.

The group walking ahead of me through the tunnel.

A darling photo I took of Ella as she reached the end.

The big kids posing under one of the beautiful trees all lit up.

Emmett giving us a happy grin from his stroller.

The kids posing in front of the awesome recreation of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that we drive over every time we go to Chris' house.

The Narrows Bridge.

The Seahawks tree.

Mount Rainier in all her glory with polar bears in the foreground.

Some of gang standing under the rainbow.