The Lights of the Season...

This year, we went with our best friends to Warm Beach in Stanwood.
It is a camp ground...filled with cabins...that schools and organizations can rent out for their retreats.

My friend Erin and I actually went there for retreats in Middle school...so that was kind of funny.

Anyway, at Christmas they deck it out with hundreds of thousands of lights.
It was a really cold night, but a wonderful distraction!

The kids were SO excited!
On the left is Sean...and the daddy is Mark...and on his shoulders, Mason.
Oh, and a GIANT snowman.
(I know, it was confusing as to which was the daddy, and which was the snowman....)
Seriously, as we all know, the camera CAN NOT do justice to pictures of lights. I played with the settings, and changed things and got some decent shots...but often there are also street lights to contend with and then depth of perception, with the camera picking up the lights...but then people are dark.

Anyway...
THE LIGHTS WERE GORGEOUS!
Little log cabin and the lights are flowers...The kids loved this set up. Especially Makylie.

Oh this picture just makes a mommy happy. :)

I love these little people.
Walking around a giant, busy campground....in the freezing cold, with super hyper kiddos...smelling kettle corn and freshly made mini doughnuts...WITH NO HOT COFFEE IN HAND....
Ummm, yeah,
I would only do that for you guys!
:)
Oh such a happy place to be!

This is my best Friend Erin.

We met in Middle School, and became best friends through high school.

Ummm yeah.

A LONG LONG LONG TIME!

And her husband Mark.

He and Kevin were best friends in High School.

We sort of lost touch after high school.

In the meantime though....

We both dated our, now husbands, for the same LONG LONG period of time...

We both got married in the same year, 4 months apart.

We both had our first kids the same year, 4 months apart.

We lived, at the time, only two blocks away from each other.

Basically, all without knowing it....any of it.

Tells me, we were never meant to lose touch... :)

So 5 years ago we reconnected, and it was LITERALLY like we had talked every single day since high school. Like that time, had never been lost.

We are neighbors again now,

Our boys are best friends

And we spend many weekends and holidays with our family's together.

We have fun...even if we are sitting around doing nothing.

That is the BEST kind of friend!

This is Bruce...

The Talking Spruce.

I would say he was the highlight of the evening.

There is some guy hiding behind a window...and he can see everyone. He asks you questions, and listens to all of the answers, and then plays off of them. He tells jokes and sings songs. The kids thought he was awesome! It was a VERY long line, so obviously, everyone thinks he is awesome!

Love this picture!

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In person, this tree was the most beautiful thing.

It was amazing. The lights reminded me of fireworks.

I could have laid on that grass and just stared up at these.

One of my favorite displays!

This one was neat to! It had three scenes that it would flash through. From sunny, to sunset (above) to moonlight with a dolphin jumping. (below)

Again...I know the camera doesn't do it justice...but it was really pretty.

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They have the Northwest's Mountain ranges all around the grounds.

Those were nice, but I really couldn't ever get a great picture of them. They were on the perimeter...so all of the path lights interfered.

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I actually really like the way this particular picture came out. The background almost looks like a drawing.

This scene was breath taking....I wish you could see how gorgeous it really was!

There was a HUGE micro train set up inside here. So intricate.

There were buttons on the outside to push...and it would make the train go, horns blow, and the headlights come on.

Tyler, really liked it.

Then out front was the picture op. :) We don't know who those other kids are...but they are sure smiling nice..... :)

It is one of those places...that takes the hectic holiday season, and puts a bow on it. You can't really help but feel happy and awestruck while you are there...and you walk away...feeling a little bit relaxed. Cold...needing Starbucks...but relaxed nonetheless.

Karman would have enjoyed it.

Thanks Gallant family, for joining us for a wonderful evening, and helping take our minds off of, life.

We had a really nice, freezing cold, time!!! :)