Happy Birthday Kristi! Christmas Train ride with Amelia. Dec 12-14

Happy Birthday Kristi. This is a picture from last June in Kamloops with her "mini me". On Kristi's BD weekend, Ray and I take Amelia. This will be the 3rd year in a row.

On Friday morning we met up with Kristi, Jason and Amelia at the Haida Way Restaurant in Chemainus for Kristi's birthday breakfast. Later we brought Amelia and Olaf to the lake, so that they can have their "adults only" weekend.

We had a busy few days. Everytime Amelia stays with us, I'm amazed at how much her vocabulary has grown and her understanding of things around her. We stopped at Country Grocer and bought her a tray of fruit, her favourite.

She is into puzzles, just like Grandpa. First though, she had to put away Grandpa's finished puzzle. She loves breaking them up.

I'd bought her several board puzzles over the past year or so.This one we bought last Christmas but she wasn't old enough to be able to do it. Not this year, she's able to find lots of pieces.

Ta Da!

Amelia and I put up her little Christmas Tree.

After a bunch of running around the house and walking Olaf, it's dinner time. Amelia made a face on her plate with her food. She chose sausages for dinner. She has her glow in the dark tatoos I gave her 2 weeks ago. lol

After ice cream for dessert, it's time to get ready for bed. Of course Olaf invited himself!

Although she's in bed for 7:30, it's 8:15 pm before she finally fell asleep. I've been fighting a cold that she gave Ray last weekend and I got from him a couple of days later. I went to bed at 8:45 pm once I was sure she was out. She woke me up at 1:30 am from a bad dream. I gave her some water and tucked her back in and she slept the rest of the night. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't go back to sleep right away, so had a very restless night, in part from Ray's snoring lol, I usually wear earplugs but couldn't with Amelia here.

She got up at 6:15 am which is pretty good. A quiet hour while she watches her tablet and eats her "first breakfast". 

After breakfast, pancakes that she helps me with, it/s time for her bath. She loves playing in the upstairs bathroom clawfoot tub, where I have her bath toys. Those tatoos are really tough, still didn't wash off.

After walking Olaf, we decided to go into Duncan to the toy store to get a couple of Christmas puzzles for Amelia and Grandpa. She had this one done in 15 minutes! Fortunately the other one took a day with all of us working on it. Amelia is really excited about Christmas at our house this year.

More building projects.

Game time with Grandma.

Later in the afternoon we headed back to Duncan as we have tickets for the Christmas Train at 4 pm. Amelia enjoyed the Halloween one, so I purchased tickets for this one too. It wasn't quite dark yet when we left on the train, but Amelia doesn't really like the dark so it worked out well. When we finished our ride it was darker so she could see the lights better. We were so fortunate, the days of rain took a break for our train ride.

Getting there early for the first ride at 4 pm worked out. After we lined up 15 minutes before departure we were near the front of the line. By the time we left, there;s a huge lineup of people and no parking left in the lot.

The Christmas Express from the water. (google)

Here we go ... toot, toot!

After our ride we walked around to see the train getting ready for the next ride.

Next walking through the outdoor exhibits.

Now for the inside exhibits.

A big Christmas Village display.

A nutcracker display.

After an hour, it was time to go for dinner across the street for Chinese Food. One of Amelia's favourite foods.

Back home for 6:30 with just enough time for ice cream and sprinkles for dessert. Pj's, teeth, 3 stories and off to bed. Tonight she slept all the way through, so I did too.

Sunday, more puzzles and playtime. Jason and Kristi picked her up at 1:45 pm heading out to a Christmas concert. Busy weekend for Miss Amelia. We had a great time.