Sights and Sounds

Another year in the books for one of our favorite Christmas traditions - Sights and Sounds. It's a festival down in San Marcos every year where vendors, local businesses and the community come together to kick off the holiday season. They offer so many fun activities for people of all ages, so it's always a blast.

This year Stephen and I were excited because it would be Miles and Carson's first year to see Santa. We prepped Miles days in advance as far as what to do when he saw Santa - mainly because we were hoping for some good pictures. We, and everyone else, had no idea how they'd react.

We got to the festival right when it opened at 5 to try and hit up some attractions before Santa arrived. With little kids, staying out late is a little more difficult, so we had certain things we definitely wanted to do before we had to leave. First up, the petting zoo.

We bought food thinking the kids could feed the animals. Well, that ended up being a terrible idea because the animals were a bit aggressive when it came to the food. The kids quickly dropped theirs on the ground while Mike was left with the rest of the cup. I'm pretty sure he was racked about 5 times by these llamas that were bound and determined to get his food. haha

The kids were overwhelmed and didn't know what to do until they found these brushes. A huge hit. And by brush, we mean take the shredded hay stuff on the ground and throw it all over the animals.

Lia spotted this baby goat and it was over from there. The only animal she was interested in ha!

Erin was so excited to be in the presence of her spirit animal - the Llama. 

That is until she realized how determined they were to get her food.... 

From there, we moseyed on over to get in line for Santa. He was supposed to arrive at 6:30, so we wanted to make sure we were close to the front.

Love this picture :)

We were a bit disappointed because he didn't arrive in a cool car or interesting mode of transportation like in past years due to construction. Total bummer because Miles would have LOVED that. But hey, he made it and the kids were pumped. The vote was 50/50 as to whether the boys would smile or if they'd scream. The winner is...

They did SO good! Miles smiled while Carson was just really interested...

...interested mostly in Santa's beard. lol

Charlie and Lizzie were not as thrilled to smile with Santa. But oh my goodness. This photo of Lizzie seeing Santa for the first time is insanely cute!

After Santa, we were ready to play! The carousel was a huge hit for everyone!

Carson loved watching it go round and round :P

The night was a huge success for everyone and I'm so glad we've made this a yearly thing. It's a perfect way to celebrate the season with family and friends.