You Win Some, You Lose Some

We went, we saw, and, I think IT conquered US. The Festival of Trees is a December tradition that we've been doing since I was fairly young. It's always during the few days surrounding my birthday, so we generally go as my birthday activity. I haven't been able to go for the last 4 or so years, with being away at school, and stuff, so I was pretty dang excited when we committed to go with Jack, Susan, and my mom. And I figured Lilly was just the right age to think the lights and decorations were pretty. Well, here's how it went.

Trying to find parking at the expo center is like trying to "hit a bullet with a smaller bullet whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse..." (Thank you to Scotty from Star Trek for that metaphor)...IMPOSSIBLE! I drove my mom, so we had her handicap tag. We struck out with handicap spots, and started the slow, miserable drive around the stuffed lot. I can't tell you how many times we went "SPOT!!" and went racing to get it, only to have it be a tiny car, or someone who we thought was backing out, but was actually only straightening out. Finally, we saw a front spot open up, and by this point we were desperate. Another lady was going for the spot, but we drove up and begged her to let us have it, since my mom was going to have to scoot herself in through the ice. She wasn't a happy camper about it, but she let us have the spot. So, thank you to the "nice" lady, karma will come your way, I'm sure. 

The rest of the evening was a blur. We spent the entire time either trying to find my mom an actual wheelchair, chasing Lilly around, keeping Lilly from going under ropes to play with toys, or trying to get her to stop screaming. We tried letting her ride on Jack's shoulders. Didn't work, but it was pretty funny watching her kick him in the face when she tried to get down. We tried letting her ride on mom's rented motorized chair. It worked for a while, and she had a blast honking at everyone, but eventually she wanted down. All she wanted to do was just run around, but there were too many people, and too many don't-touch items laying around. We walked maybe a handful of aisles, got a cinnamon roll to try to buy us more time, browsed the shop real quick, and then gave up. Poor Lilly was so tired, and most likely over-stimulated. I had fun, even though everyone I was with would probably assume otherwise. Ha!

Racin'

Mom bought Lilly a "pitty" bracelet

Everyone being silly

Some woman must have been working on that beast for months!

He didn't even get to set her down on his shoulders before she wanted down.

It took me a second to realize that people thought they were a same-sex couple. Jack got really uncomfortable, so he made me switch him out. Ha! Good lookin' couple, though!

Didn't want to ride on the scooter...

Bear-bear tree

He's so stinkin' cute with her!

Ryan's favortie tree....of course

Calming her down after her slap-mommy-in-the-face-in-front-of-everyone tantrum

My favorite "tree"

We must have missed the memo about bringing something to ride on 

Drive-by nacho kisses!

Ha! I was scootin' along on Scooty

Ryan, being the always-right man that he is, knew that mom and I would be a while in the shop, and that Lilly wasn't going to just sit still, so he took her out to the main area to run around. He said that once she heard Jingle Bells start playing, she stopped what she was doing and just started to dance. Now, come on, tell me you wouldn't have stopped to watch this cute baby dance...

I knew that if my mom showed Lilly the horn button, she'd be pushing it all night....and she did. She had everyone thinking my mom was an impatient old lady.

As soon as we got home, she plopped down on the couch, said "nigh-nigh" and then pretended to sleep.