Christmas in the City

The week before Christmas we made the trek to Salt Lake to experience more of our favorite Christmas traditions.  We started with the The Grand America Hotel where we love to see the windows that are decorated as well as the life size ginger bread house.  The kids love how fancy the hotel is and had a great time checking out the bathrooms, statues, clocks, nutcrackers and the toy store.  Grandma and Grandpa Whitesides met us for the adventure which it especially fun.

After finishing at the hotel, we said goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma and decided to take Trax to Temple Square.  Luke and Ruby love Curious George and are fascinated with the fact that he lives in the city so whenever we are in Salt Lake they get excited to be living a city life like George.  Of course, the best part of city life is riding the subway.  Luke was a little disappointed that the train we rode didn't go underground, but still loved his first real train ride (other than the Polar Express).  

We got off the train in rush hour traffic and had to push through the crowds which was kind of tricky with two little ones but they held my hands tight and were just amazed by the whole experience.  We added a few more windows to the day when we passed by the Macy's windows.  It is amazing what they have made out of candy.  I don't think Luke and Ruby were as impressed with the craftsmanship as much as they were by the enormous amounts of candy.

Tim had driven to Ogden to pick up Brycen and we met up on Temple Square to see the lights which were, of course, amazing.  It would have been great to have the entire family together, but we were happy to at least have the five of us to enjoy the beauty of the lights and the general feel.  

We eventually decided to leave the lights because everyone was so hungry.  We had dinner at the Joseph Smith Building Cafe which was right in the middle of the chaos, but the food was delicious and totally worth the wait.  We spent a lot of time eating and letting the kids do plays and dances on a little stage before finally heading for home - we were all so tired, but oh so happy as well.