Sunday-Santasland

We had plans on our way out on Sunday to stop through the mountains in several different spots to sight see and let the kids look around. Apparently there were other plans meant for us though because as soon as we started loading the car up to leave the cabin it started raining. We got stuck in traffic and combined with the rain quickly made what should have been less than an hour trip right at two hours just to get to Cherokee. Once we got there the rain had stopped so we decided we would visit a small amusement park called Santasland. There was a small zoo there and several rides...a lot of it was geared towards the smaller kids but Lucas kept himself busy also with his favorite..the Rudicoaster. We spent several hours there and were waiting on the paddleboats for our final ride when it started pouring down rain. We took cue that it was time to head home so we rain our way with 4 kids mind you through the rain and packed it up for the day.


The first thing we saw when we walked in were Santa's reindeer and you could feed them. There was tons of food left on the floor in the barn so my kids were resourceful and started picking it up :) Guess they knew not to ask for money for deer food since Lucas just got done telling me the night before that I was cheap. I was shocked that Caleb actually left the deer eat out of his hand!


This is a set of bear cubs that they have there. They change the bears out every couple of years and this year they have a boy and a girl. They are about seven and a half months old and we were able to see them bottle feed them...they were so adorable and looked so snuggly!!! If you've seen on the news in the last few days that Bob Barker is speaking on behalf of Peta about bears at several exhibits in Cherokee this is one of them..I didn't know until we got home but found it interesting that we had just visited. I really didn't see anything harsh happening..the babies were on grass and hay and seemed happy...one of them was just laying at the gate waiting to be let in for his bottle and once in was trying to chew his way back into the open area. The older bears(1.5 years old)were in a smaller cage I believe although I couldn't see it all but they said that they would be sending them to a zoo soon so they would have more room.


I like this picture of all three of the boys..they were looking in a pond that was filled with ducks.


This was the first ride that Caleb rode and I had to physically pick him up,carry him in there and put him in the car. He said he wanted to ride but when it came time he got scared...after it started you couldn't wipe the smile off his face and he was driving the car like crazy...it was priceless!!!!!


When I took this picture I thought it was Allie's first carousel ride but I just realized that I was wrong. She first rode it at Gattitown with her Nendny one day at lunchtime. She was very wary at first when David put her on here but quickly grew excited and once it was over she didn't want to get off. What is it with kids...they're scared until you force them to do it and then once they try it all you hear is how much they wanna do it again?


This was another one that Caleb was nervous about too...I shoved him in the middle of Lucas and Jacob to make sure he wouldn't fall out and they had a blast. Love that I was able to get them all in the picture even with David and Allie.





This was another ride we got on that stopped at the very tip top..what is it with me getting on things and then they like to stop in the middle of the ride. I'm beginning to think I'm not very fond of heights.




This is the coolest thing ever! They have a lake or pond there that you are able to take paddleboats out on..this was what we were waiting on when it started pouring down rain. In the pond they have rainbow trout that you can feed and they follow all the boats around all day long waiting on food so they get fed constantly apparently. Since we didn't make it on the boats we stood out in the rain for a few minutes and fed them...I have never in my life seen anything like this. Seriously I laughed out loud and was amazed at them. When you threw food in you have never seen so many fish in one small area in your entire life. They were on top of each other trying to get to the food.....not exaggerating but there were at least 200 fish in the very small area that we were in just throwing some food in..flopping on top of each other every which way they possibly could. Never laid eyes on anything like this before...astonishing!