Belated St. Nick's Day

The tradition of celebrating St. Nicholas has been a part of my family since, well for as long as I know, and it's one I want to share with Riley and Zachary. This year St. Nick came a bit late to our home, but the kids were still very excited.

Riley loved her Olivia book...

but loved even more helping Z get to the bottom of all of his goodies.

One cool dude with a loud little ranger truck!

To celebrate the season, we decided to take the weekend and head to Nashville for an overnight stay at the Grand Ole Opry. First stop...JD's favorite store and playground...Bass Pro Shop.

It was the perfect place for the kids to visit with Santa. (pic to be posted soon)

We forgot how great it was at Christmas, as they have so much holiday fun for the kids besides just St. Nick...There were craft tables where Riley was able to write a letter to Santa and make a snowman ornament;

Remote control trains;

some bow and shooting games (which Zach and Daddy could have spent all day enjoying);

and even a carousel. Riley loved it, Zach...not so much!

That evening we spent time walking throughout the magnificent hotel and admiring all of the decorations.

The view from our room was awesome and Riley enjoyed hanging out on the balcony.

Pics were a bit of a challenge, as both Ry and Z were a bit out of sorts most of the weekend (they are such home-bodies and not big fans of crowds, and the hotel was extremely packed).

Our main objective of the trip...to take the kids to see ICE...a winter wonderland display made completely of ice with a theme of Merry Madagascar.

We had never seen the movie "Merry Madagascar" prior to this ice show, but now are the proud owners of the DVD (which we watched over and over again on the way home, thanks to Daddy's brilliant idea of bypassing the hour or two long line by purchasing the VIP tickets...it was a must considering this was attempt number 2 for little man to see the display!)

Zach was not the happiest camper to be stuffed into a parka that turned him into a weebly, wobbly penguin, but he was a trooper and made it through to the end of the frigid tour.

The infamous ice slides at the end...bigger and way better than when JD and I had first visited (probably a decade ago). JD attempted to take Zachy down the slide, but they were not allowed to go down together...and I am thankful he didn't cut him loose on his own, due to his royal grumpiness and unpredictability!

This was one memorable overnight trip, which we will not soon forget!