The North Pole...

Well there is a new gig in town... Seven Peaks has somewhat converted itself into "The North Pole" for the Christmas season.  Like good little Pass of All Passes holders, my sister and I decided to check it out with our crew of crazies.  We're full of Christmas spirit and we don't even care.

Anyway, once we waited in line, figured out the basics and booked our reservations for our "boat tour" around the North Pole, we entered the park to *some* winter wonderland.

Two striped noggins in their various renditions.

 I'll be honest with you.  It's clear that this is the first somewhat disheveled and unorganized year that Seven Peaks has decided to foray into the world of winter and it shows.  But when you're a kid and you're out past your bedtime with cousins, these details make no impact.  So we headed to the sledding hill to give it a whirl... some of us did so hand-in-hand.  :)

 While not super intense, very long or really fast... the sledding hill IS fun.  And once we docked our meat sleds after the first round, the kiddos RAN to repeat their allotted three times each.  Eventually Ash and I joined them with the littlest of our crew.  Somehow I crammed the belly in there even though I looked like a holiday elf in my pom beanie smuggling toys out of Santa's shop!

Go Team "Less than a month to Go Pregnant"!

 Some obligatory Christmas light pictures.

Though I clearly need lessons on how to take night time photos.   

Suthie Girls

 Gardner Guys

And who did we run into then?  Well the big man, of course.  He was not the jolliest of elves, but he did have a basket of candy and asked each of the kiddos if they had been good.  Ace hadn't had his meltdown quite yet so they all answered somewhat truthfully that indeed, they had been trying hard! 

 And then we were off to the river tour of the North Pole.

The cuzzies waited in line Von Trapp style which was totally cute.

 And a little panic inducing since we thought for sure we would lose at least one in the frigid water.

Ace was convinced there was jelly fish in the water.  And due to the "cotton fluff" that had fallen from some of the North Pole scenes and the plethora of leaves, the water did look as if it contained creatures from the dark abyss.  :) 

 It was all smiles when we finally loaded our ships and took off down the lazy river!  

 With a side of serious "Captain Face".  Ha Ha. 

 The vignettes were hit and miss.  Sometimes there were many lights and figures - sometimes they'd blown over and were not too enticing.  But an A for effort?

And a huge A+ for me and Lou.  We're SO on the nice list for braving a cold and blustery night at the North Pole with our crew of crazy cousins.

 You don't have to take our word for it - Santa said so!