The Trains at Northpark

 

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is taking Jake to see the trains at Northpark mall each year.  We started when he was 1 1/2 and look forward to it every year.  For the non-DFW family that read the blog...Northpark mall sets up a huge model train display in a storefront each year.  The proceeds benefit the Ronald McDonald house.  I love that part of the money goes to charity and that it is very affordable, our whole family went for $15, you can't beat that!  You can stay and watch as long as you want, which is usually about an hour for Jake :)

 

 

Our plan this year was to take Jake the first weekend in December, but Icemaggedon happened, so we went this past weekend instead.  We didn't tell Jake where we were going, just that it was somewhere special.  It drove him nuts that he didn't know what we were doing and he kept us pretty entertained with his guesses as we drove there.  We finally gave him some clues as we walked into the mall and he figured it out.

 

Happy, Happy, Happy!

 Truly fascinated...

 

 

 One of the 'conductors' was working on a train, Jake thought it was super cool!

 

  Jake is slightly obsessed with Charlie Brown and the Peanuts characters right now, he was SO excited to find a Snoopy train!

 Jake also caught a peek at the drawer that holds some of the controllers for the trains.  I'm pretty sure he was plotting how to get his hands on those levers.

 Daddy and Jake

  Me and Stephen (I am not a fan of this pic, but oh well!)

 

 Dropping pennies into the open boxcars of the trains.

 Jake and Mommy 

 

 

 After about 40 minutes I was getting hot and it was getting crowded, so I went to the food court to put my feet up for a minute.  The boys stayed for at least another 20 minutes.  Jake probably would have stayed there all day if we let him!  He was loving being at the mall, all the Christmas trees and decorations, so we walked around for a while.  There was a violin quarter playing carols and Jake wanted to stop and listen.

 We were going to do a 'walk by' of Santa so Jake could catch a peek, but we made it just in time for the last half of storytime with Santa, talk about an excited boy!  It was crazy crowded, so I couldn't maneuver around to get any pics of Jake watching the 'big guy'

 After seeing Santa, we took Jake in the Disney store, just to look around.  He was so excited to see so many of his favorite things in one place!  He did get to buy a new Dusty Crophopper backpack...his school backpack was on its last legs, so he truly needed it, I promise :)

We started walking back to where we came in and where the quartet had been, was an entire orchestra playing carols.  Jake saw the drums and we HAD to stop for a while.

It was such a fun, family morning together!  I can't wait for next year when we have Cody with us!