Christmas Lights!!!

December has FLOWN by! It seems like Thanksgiving was just last week. I blinked and now it's only a few days until Christmas. I don't know how it happened! Well. . . the Christmas season may be going by way too fast, but at least we got to see some absolutely beautiful Christmas lights this month!

Seeing new things and going to new places has always ranked high on my list of priorities, so I took my husband and kids to a couple of Seattle-area wonderlands of lights that I had heard about but never been to.
The Lights of Christmas at Warm Beach Camp in Stanwood (about an hour north of where I live) definitely takes the prize for the best variety of family-friendly Christmas activities. Natalie was pretty fascinated by this bear, and kept saying "Rawr!" at him!

The only downside was the rain. If we look cold, it's because we were. Cold and pretty wet. At least we kept the baby dry! And kept Natalie semi-dry.
Someone really should invent a giant umbrella that hooks onto a stroller handle and encases both adults and kids, keeping everyone dry. Wouldn't that be awesome?

This place had some amazing lights! It was so fun to walk around and see everything, rain and all!

Natalie loved the lights!
(You may have noticed Kirsten is missing from all these pictures. She would have loved these places, but she was already in San Diego with my parents, getting some much-needed individual attention while she waited for us to come down there for Christmas).

Yes, it's true. . . they have a talking Christmas tree.

We skipped the Polar Express train ride because of a huge line, but we got to sit in this one!

Natalie got her first pony ride! I thought she might be scared, but she LOVED it and laughed the whole time. It was the highlight of the night for her!

I highly recommend this place for families! It was completely worth the drive, and there are so many fun things for kids of all ages to do there!

We also went to one of the free nights at the Garden d'Lights in Bellevue. They transform the whole botanical gardens into a gorgeous and intricate "light garden" of flowers and animals. I was really impressed by all the detail!

I loved going to see the lights at Temple Square when I lived in Utah, but I can honestly say that I have never seen a place that rivals the Pacific Northwest for wonderful Christmas activities. Every year I seem to add more to my list of places I want to go every December! Go check these places out if you live in the Seattle area, or just come visit us next year and come with us!

I'd love to hear about some of the fun Christmas activities in your area, too!