Trains at North Park

One of my favorite holiday traditions is our visit to the Trains at NorthPark. We have been going since Ryan was a baby and it's always a fun activity that the kids love. Not to mention it's for a good cause.  All ticket & train car proceeds go towards the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas Charity. Three years ago I learned that you could make a donation to purchase a personalized train car that will run during the exhibit. You let them know what you want on the train car and they always do an amazing job! I love checking out all of the different cars - so festive and fun! It's always fun to search for our train car and pretty soon we will have to get a track so we can run ours at home. 

The big thing that was new this year was the app, All Aboard! 360. We totally missed out on this but I so wish I would have dowloaded it before we went. It allows you to ride as a passenger aboard the trains. During your visit you use the app to track your progress in an interactive scavenger hunt and win prizes. The download is free but you can give a one time donation to until all the train rides. Definitely will need to download this for next year!!!

 Hayden was so excited to find Marshall from the Paw Patrol!

She probably would have jumped in if she could have...

The State Fair display is always my favorite

It took a while but we finally found our train - Kevin spotted it first!

After the trains we walked around the mall. 

The Gingerbread village was London Town this year.

Of course we stopped to see the ducks and turtles...

I think this was a reaction to the large santa and reindeer above the pond....

The kids loved seeing the turtles and ducks....and of course playing on the wall thingy. 

Shrek on ICE

This year we spent Christmas in Dallas. My family came in to town before Christmas so it was up to us to come up with some pre-holiday activities. They arrived Thursday evening so we just had a late dinner and caught up. We planned to celebrate Christmas (with my family) on the morning of the 24th, so we had a full day to do something fun. Kevin and I hadn't seen ICE and we thought it might be something that the whole family would enjoy so on Friday morning we all headed out to The Gaylord to see what it was all about. 

This year ICE was Shrek the Halls and it was pretty cool to see. First of all, I have never been to the Gaylord. That in itself is something to see. Wow. It's big. 

My mom bought tickets beforehand for the first available time so we didn't have to wait very long. (You do so much walking that there isn't much of a line.) It felt like we walked forever but we finally made it - we waited in one line to get into an auditorium type area. Once in there we watched a video all about how the exhibit was made then went to get a large blue parka (which was needed). A quick posed picture was taken some more walking and then FINALLY we got to the doors of the exhibit. 

After all this walking, waiting, watching stuff Ryan was still doing pretty good. RIGHT before we walked into the exhibit Kevin let him get down (he was squirming to walk) and the little guy tripped and fell on his face. He had too many jackets on and couldn't break his fall with his hands. His sharp little teeth took a chunk out of his lip. Poor guy. So there was a little blood. But all in all he was ok. He didn't really cry so we decided to power through. 

Ryan and daddy 

My Yia yia and Papu

Holy hotdog - it is cold in there! I think it is around 12 degrees...so even in all my layers it started to get COLD!  i cannot imagine actually being one of the sculptors. The whole thing is pretty cool to see but by the end I was ready to get out. 

A couple of things:

1. Bring your cold weather gear - jackets, scarfs, gloves, hats...everything - you need it! All they give you is the jacket to wear over which isn't very thick. It's great because its super long...so that helps. 

2. Go early! We went the first available time which worked out well. I can only imagine that it would be a crazy mess in there later in the day. 

3. No strollers - you can bring strollers all the way up to the entrance. Everyone told me this and I didn't really find it to be an issue. Ryan was fine being held so no problems there. 

After the exhibit we found a place to eat then headed back to Dallas. While we had a great time I think its one of those "once is enough" type deals. Maybe when Ryan is older and wants to go down the slides we could make another trip, but for now consider it checked off the list of Christmas fun.  

This is as we were leaving. Ryan was itching to do some walking so his Pro papu and Papu went with him. How cute!