Winter Wildland at the zoo

Goodness, December is flying by! I can't believe that Christmas is only 2 days away now, but I'm positive that is really the case as the kids have been diligently keeping track of the passage of the days on the advent calendars in the kitchen. We have been spending lots of time at dance classes and performances the last two weeks. Between the holiday performances the twins' group had to do and then the parties and final classes before break where we could go sit in the room and watch them work, it seemed like I was not doing much else.

Carissa has been sick for almost a week now, missing the last two days of school and the holiday festivities because of it. A trip to the doctor first thing this morning confirmed my suspicions of a sinus infection, and she has a touch of bronchitis too. Hopefully she will be on the mend now that we have some antibiotics to help her heal. She was a trouper last night and danced at the final performance at the zoo even though she didn't feel well. I was finally able to get a picture of the whole group together in their outfits with the hula loops- I'll show that off a bit later, but first I'm going to show pictures from our trip on Friday night to the zoo to see the lights. We knew we wouldn't have time to see the lights when we went for the dance performances, so when the weather forecasts said it would be pretty warm Friday we decided to go then. We were glad we did because it was COLD last night, certainly not temperatures you want to be outside for long in. Here are my favorite pictures from Winter Wildland at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo this year and a couple of layouts too.

a nice view of the city down at the bottom of the mountain.
After I took the pictures of the girls with Santa, Carissa had to tell me about an idea she had for a layout with both pictures of them with the Grinch and Santa. I think I will have to ask for her help in scrapping those particular pictures.

I liked the blue, white and red color theme of the new Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit area this year. These were all new decorations this year. That's my mom in the picture below, not me- I'm taking the picture.

Journaling: They had all new lights for the Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit area at the zoo this year in the colors blue, white and red. It was very festive.
credits: Jingle Bell Blues by Marcie Reckinger at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns; Ice Storm Alpha by Flergs, DST Gold Member kit; Circle Date Stamps Mini 2 by Christy Lyle (click-a-sig freebie); LO template by Yin Designs (heavily modified); fonts: Note This

And a layout with some of our favorite holiday light spots here in the Springs. Several of the houses in our neighborhood go all out at this time of year, the Nazarene college does a big drive-through light display that focuses on the biblical Christmas story as well as showing non-religious holiday themes, the Broadmoor, and 3 pictures from the zoo- which is always my favorite each year.

journaling: One of my favorite things about Christmas is the glow of Christmas lights that decorate the neighborhoods. The holidays just wouldn’t be the same without them.
credits: Fantastical and Foiled Again Alpha by Dianne Rigdon at scrapartist; Bright Lights by Dani Brath; fonts: CK Becky