The Fun Christmas Activity that Wasn't

I LOVE to do outings with my kids.  I mean, LOVE!  And since the last few weeks had been super busy with Brad and I working most every spare moment, I thought it would be wonderful to have a family outing and do something fun with the kids.  I noticed on a Utah Valley website that the Riverwoods Shopping Plaza was going to have a free event where they lit up all their Christmas lights.  There would also be a TON of free things like apple cider, cookies, face painting and balloon animals.

We packed up the kids and immediately upon arrival, it was CRAZY crowded.  Which, ok, we had to park a little farther away than normal, but that was okay with me.  Brad was thinking we should just leave and not deal with the crowds, but I was determined to have a fun family night.  So, we hefted out the stroller and thankfully Gabe was okay to stay in it and headed over.   I noticed that some families were leaving as we left and there was a common theme amongst them, both families had crying kids they were taking home.

Must be their bedtime, I thought.  I felt grateful that my kids were older, so that didn't happen anymore, at least not with Amalie and Noah. The lights were spectacular and I was enjoying the gorgeous surroundings.  The kids got their free cookies and cider and even some glow sticks (love those!) and we looked at some ice sculptures.  I was a little surprised that the kids weren't a little more excited, I mean, I don't remember going places as a kid and getting all kinds of freebies like that!

Amalie really wanted to see Santa, and we had warned her beforehand that if the line was long, we would just wave as we walked by and she agreed.  But . . . In person it was different.  She was SO upset when we wouldn't get in the long line.

Then the kids decided they wanted to go to the toy store.  We tried to put them off, but finally we gave in and said, "Ok, we'll go for a few minutes and then go home."

Oh man.  We could barely get in the toy store, let alone move.  When we gave up and left, both the kids were REALLY upset!  And then we were the family leaving with one crying kid, one angry kid, two annoyed parents and one sweet, content baby.

Honestly, I had a good time.  I just wished that we could have ALL enjoyed it.  Ah well.   Brad and I decided we would come back again by ourselves.