Santa's North Pole Adventure at the Georgetown Loop Railroad

Andrew and I took the kids up to Georgetown to meet my friends for a train ride with Santa Claus! Oliver went on their Pumpkin Fest train this year with Grandma Judy and last year with us and Grandma Colleen. This was his first time doing the Santa's North Pole Adventure. Tickets were pricey, but they included a nice, long visit with Santa (complete with photo op), a jingle bell ornament for the kids, hot cocoa, a cookie, and a candy cane. We had a great time, but Oliver decided the train didn't go fast enough. 

There were many light displays along the loop. I guess they run a nighttime Holiday Lights train and have all of the decorations lit up. That would be fun to do one year!

Oliver adores Baby Grace.

Family photo!

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

This past weekend was also the Georgetown Christmas Market. After the train ride, we went to town to enjoy the market. Georgetown is such a cute mountain town. It's a charming place for the Christmas season.

Fun at White Fence Farm

Years ago, when I lived in Chicago, our family would occasionally go to a restaurant called White Fence Farm. It's a family-style restaurant that serves classic Southern & American foods like hush-puppies and fried chicken. Imagine our surprise when we moved here and discovered there is a different White Fence Farm restaurant in the Denver area. Shortly after we moved here, we surprised my grandma with a trip out to White Fence Farm. I haven't been back since.

...until last week. We met with friends for dinner. I'd forgotten how kid-friendly it is! They have a petting zoo and a giant slide. There is a little market attached, too, and there was live music playing. Santa is there on some weekend days close to Christmas, but he wasn't there when we visited.

The kids and our friends all got a chicken dinner. Andrew and I selected the vegetarian option, which is unlimited sides and a baked potato. Normally, side dishes aren't all that exciting, but White Fence Farm has a really good bean salad. With the hush puppies, coleslaw, and baked potato, I felt quite satiated. We don't take the kids out to eat very often, so they don't have much experience sitting at a restaurant, waiting for food. At home, they don't have to sit down until food is on the table. Because everything is family-style, the food came out almost immediately. It made dining out really easy. The kids were good and earned a wooden nickel, which they got to cash in at a treasure chest. The treasure chest is filled with blue & pink sealed envelopes, which contain prizes. Oliver got a monkey stamp, which he was thrilled about, and Joanna got these hilarious disguise glasses.

She heard us talking about Oliver's monkey stamp, and she got it in her head that her mask was a monkey mask. She wouldn't take it off and kept making monkey noises to people. "Ooh ooh! Ahh ahh!" People were fawning all over her because she was so cute & funny.

Here are the kids hanging out with the Thomas Jefferson statue. Joanna liked the shoes.

Oliver surprised me by loving the slide. It is really big and fast. There's even a height requirement for it! We also went out and fed the animals. The animals were all inside their barn until they heard the crank of the food machine. They came running! The goats were surprisingly friendly, but the cow was a big bully when it came to the food.

Moove Kids' Dance Party in Littleton

We joined MOMS Club for a little dance party at Moove in Littleton! It's a new play place for kids. There's a big dance floor, and they lead kids through dances like The Hokey Pokey and Limbo!

When we arrived, Oliver and Joanna bee-lined it straight for the balls. They rolled them around the dance floor and bounced on them. They loved it! Oliver told me the place was "so pretty" because of all the lights.

In the back, they have a dark room lit up with black lights. The kids get to draw on the walls and floors in chalk. I think the chalk is supposed to glow under the black light, but it didn't really work. The kids still loved the novelty of writing on walls, though.

This is Oliver refusing to dance "The Funky Chicken," but he agreed to bounce to the song.

And then there was limbo! Limbo was hilarious. Oliver and the little kids just ducked under the bar instead of bending. He really had the best time! When we got home, he asked me to set up a bar for him, so I tied a piece of string across a doorway for him to play and duck under.

There was also plenty of food, in addition to some for purchase at reasonable prices. The older kids also enjoyed playing with a Kinect. A good time was had by all!

Denver Firefighter's Museum

A few months ago, I purchased a deal on Living Social to go to the Denver Firefighter's Museum. I think the deal was $10 for 4 people, so it was really affordable. Plus, I'd never been!

The museum is exactly that: a museum. There are a number of exhibits to look at. Because we were with the kids, we really couldn't stop and appreciate all of them. It was neat seeing all of the old uniforms and equipment, though. Most of the stuff is hands-off, but they have special stations for kids to play that were marked with a fire dog. The main attraction was a firetruck. Kids got to dress up in a firefighter coat & helmet and climb on the truck. It sounds kind of petty, but it was nice that the clothes fit the kids. We've played with the truck at the Denver Children's Museum before, and the coats there are huge! Here, they fit the kiddos properly, and they could easily climb into and out of the truck. Unlike the Children's Museum, this truck didn't have lights and sirens, though.

There were a few other stations for kids to check out. One was an old firefighter's pole. Oliver wasn't too keen on trying it out. Both he and Jo really loved one of the areas upstairs. To teach stop, drop, and roll, they set mats down on the ground. The kids stuck felt flames to themselves, and then they rolled around on the mats until the flames came off. They had the best time rolling around on that mat!

I genuinely had a good time at this museum. It wasn't overwhelming and overstimulating for kids. It wasn't too busy, even though we'd gone on a Saturday. We spent an hour there and felt like we got to see and do everything, and we left feeling happy instead of worn out! I also ran into a friend from high school who was there to use her Living Social deal, too. Funny how those things work out! I'd definitely go back. For anyone interested in checking out the museum, they had a sign posted that their next free day is this upcoming Saturday, October 12.

Here's a video of Oliver practicing stop, drop, and roll!
                                                         

Kids' Day, The Colorado Railroad Museum, and Our Day Out with Thomas

Every year around this time, we pick a day and designate it to be kids' day. We try to pick things to do that we think our kids will especially love. Recently, Oliver has been all about Thomas the Train, so we got him tickets to "A Day Out with Thomas." We took them for Kids' Day this past Saturday. I didn't want to get him too excited ahead of time because it is really hard for little kids to wait. So, we carefully worked him up to it by saying things like, "I've heard Thomas might be coming into town from Sodor." The day before we went, we asked him, "Would you like to see Thomas?" He stared off in the distance and broke out in a big smile. "Yes, I do!" he exclaimed. That settled that!

When I'd called the museum to get tickets, the man who helped me let me know that there would be a lot of activities for kids. He also told me it's really busy and to get there at least an hour before our train departure time. Our tickets were for 1pm, so we needed to be there by noon. We arrived a little before 11am, and I am so glad we did! The place was packed. I had no idea it would be the event it was. There were large signs directing us to "Thomas the Train Parking." We had to drive about two miles past the museum to park, and then we caught the shuttle they provided back to the museum. As we drove past the museum, we saw Thomas. You have no idea how pumped Oliver got from seeing Thomas. Well, maybe you do.

We parked our car and took the shuttle over to the museum. It was the first bright, hot, and sunny day in a few weeks. I had no idea the event was all outside! Andrew laughed at me when I said that, but it's true. We didn't come prepared and didn't have hats or sunscreen. We spent a lot of the time trying to keep the kids shaded and cool. It was absolutely worth it, though. One of the first things we did was stand in line for photos with Thomas. We got to see Thomas drive around the park a few times (he did 3 loops for the riders). 

After Thomas stopped, we go to go stand and have our photo taken. They sold the photos for $18, but they also let us take our own. I snapped one of the family super quick. I didn't want to hold up the long line behind us, and, consequently, I ended up with a single, blurry photo. Oh, well!

Even Joanna got into the Thomas spirit! She kept yelling, "Thomas!" all day. A few times, she walked up to kids who were wearing Thomas the Train shirts and pointed at them and yelled, "THOMAS!" at them. It was kind of funny.

In the library at the museum, a woman read stories about Thomas.

There was a big tent full of train sets for the kids to play with. Our kids loved this tent, and we sat in there for probably a full half hour.

We got to go into an old train car, where they were giving out temporary tattoos.

Sir Topham Hatt was there, too! The line to see Sir Topham Hatt was a few blocks long. We didn't wait in line, and I just snapped a photo of him from the distance.

Rather than wait in line in the sun to get a spot on one of the front cars, we waited in the shade to get a shady car at the back of the train. The wait wasn't too bad, and the kids did great!

Here's our view of the museum as we went around on the train:

There's Thomas, pulling our train!

We were all exhausted after our day out with Thomas. The kids were amazing, though, and never got fussy or cranky the entire time. We really felt like we'd just spent the day at Disney World or something!

Everyone was too wiped out to do much after that. I ran to the store and picked up ingredients to cook with Oliver. We made smoothies and a pizza. After we ate, he helped me bake pumpkin bread for the first day of fall! In all, I think it was pretty much the best day he could have hoped for, and Jo had a good time, too.

Toepfer Park in Highlands Ranch

We're staying with Andrew's parents in Highlands Ranch for a while as our house goes through even more showings! We've had interest and offers that have fizzled out on our home, so no contract yet! We're hoping to be under contract soon.

We decided to go check out Toepfer Park. There is a little parking lot off Venneford Ranch Road, but you can't see the playground from there. I thought we were in the wrong spot, but the playground is just down the path beyond a hilltop.

There was some shade over the swings and a nice pavilion, but the playground itself was unprotected from the harsh Colorado sun. I told the kids we could only stay a few minutes because we were there midday.

There were a few other parents and kids at the park. Most of the kids were hanging out at the swings in the shade, and most of the parents were under the pavilion. Everyone was friendly and welcoming, and I had a few parents to talk to. It was nice!

The equipment is made out of good material that didn't get too hot. It was nice that Oliver could go down the slide and climb up the stairs without worrying about getting burned. Because it was tucked away from the road, it felt peaceful.

We had fun at the park and will definitely be back, but we will avoid it again midday when the sun is strongest.