[Countdown to Christmas] LA Zoo Lights

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

From the minute I saw that Desiree had shared a Living Social deal for the LA Zoo Lights on Facebook, I was intrigued. We have never been to the LA Zoo and to find out that they had a Christmas exhibit sounded super fun to me. I quickly asked her what it was all about, she said it would be her first time going so she wasn't totally sure but it sounded fun. I agreed, asked when she was going, and decided to get tickets for the same day.

Seth was excited (as excited as a man would be to see lights at the zoo lol) and I'm sure was still hesitant about meeting up with Desiree and her husband since she was still my internet friend - so to speak - that I met for the first time the weekend before. (He calls my blog friends "virtual reality friends" lol).

Regardless, we headed up to LA around 3:30pm on Sunday in order to have a little early dinner before we went to the zoo. It rained on and off on our way there (what the heck, California? It NEVER rains until we make plans to do something outside...) but we were hopeful that it would stop before our zoo lights reservation at 6pm. We stopped at a little pizza joint that we found online (with good reviews) and had some garlic knots and pepperoni pizza.

After dinner, we headed over to the zoo a little early since we didn't know how the parking situation would be and oddly enough, we parked right next to Desiree and her family. When we were driving up, we saw that there was a HUGE line to get in and so despite the fact that it was still raining, we decided to get in line. The rain never let up and they were late to open the gates, but we were all still in good spirits and ready to go in.



Mason kept wanting to hold the umbrella which quickly turned into him trying to fling water all over Desiree, Scott, and Marcus and me profusely apologizing for getting them more wet than they already were.

Once inside, we were immediately amazed by the display of lights. I apologize for the bad quality pictures - it was hard to get good ones in the middle of a rain storm.


They had lights everywhere. It was gorgeous.

By this point, we had only been walking around for about 10 minutes and it was still raining. Seth, Mason, and I were trying to all share an umbrella and it wasn't working. I gave it to them and used Mason's changing pad as a rain shield, but that wasn't working either.

We passed the nearest store and I told them I was going in. I was not above wearing a poncho to try to stay dry... and that's just what I did.

Or should I say... we :)
Some of us were happier about it than others.


Once we had our ponchos on and the littlest member of our family had a snack, we were back on our way to see the lights.


They had gorgeous displays everywhere. I had a hard time refraining from taking about a million photos of the whole thing.

While Mason was busy eating and I was busy snapping pictures, Seth and Scott were busy bonding over "guy things" i.e. talking about beer.

Luckily both men are married to bloggers and understand that we want to take a hundred, million photos and don't have a problem stopping every two feet.
(thanks guys!)



We came upon reindeer (real, live reindeer!) and I think I was the most excited out of the whole group. I'm not quite sure why, but I've never seen a reindeer in person before and it just seemed really cool.



In the midst of the lights, we were lucky enough to stumble upon one jolly old man in a red suit - SANTA! Online it said that he was only there on select nights and we didn't see our date listed so we were fully prepared to not see Santa when all of a sudden, there he was.

Some of us were happier to see him than others and as a result, we ended up with the token "I hate Santa and I will cry if I want to" picture.


Poor kid.

We walked around some more and just took in the sights.


Despite the rain, we all had a great time and the lights were AWESOME! The pictures don't do them justice. We definitely want to go back next year (and I'm even planning on going to the LA Zoo just for the zoo part sometime soon!) 

 The big boys had good conversation and the girls had fun taking in the sights, taking pictures, and chatting. And even though the little boys didn't have a chance to really play with each other, I just know they would get along really well.

Can't wait for our next Christmas adventure this coming weekend!




***

Linking up with Beth.

Our Pretty Little Girls

17 comments:

  1. What a bummer it rained, but it looks like such a fun time! Zoo lights is on our list too, I can't wait!

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  2. Those look like some great displays! Too bad it was raining, but that's awesome you got to go with Desiree and her family. Whenever I talk about my blogging friends, my hubby always says, 'oh you mean the people that don't exist?' Lol - silly husbands :) By the way, I would be very excited about the reindeer too - so cool!

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  3. Amazing! Even in the rain storm, it is still beautiful and looks like fun. How far are you from LA? I have a famous cousin that lives there. :)

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  4. i love the sweater-y elephants! AND the reindeer. I'd be with you in the excitement, that is super fun. I love reindeer. Not sure I've seen one though. But...they fly with santa...so they are super cool! Too bad about the rain though. Virtual reality friends haha. My husband isn't as clever, he says nothing when I mentioned any blog friends.

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  5. Looks amazing even in the rain! Poor Mason - I don't blame him - the rain + a strange man dressed in red? It might make me cry too. Callie wouldn't even go near Santa without us :) So fun you guys got to meet up. CA seems to be getting s lot of rain lately! I'm sure you all need it :)

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  6. Aww I'm sorry it rained for you but it looks like you had a great time anyway! I haven't taken my daughter to see Santa yet this year, so I'm not sure if there will be tears or not yet. Last year we were tear free so fingers crossed!! lol

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  7. What beautiful lights! So brave of you to do it all with the rain!

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  8. So pretty! Glad you guys braved the rain!

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  9. So much fun the whole event looks absolutely amazing and it is even cooler that you guys got to meet up again and your families got to meet as well. Stinks that it rained though :(. At least you made the best of it!

    Thanks for linking up!

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  10. Awwww crying kid/santa pics are so cute! Looks like a wonderful night despite the rain!

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  11. DUDE. we wanted to do this SO BAD. but we ended up being out of town. i love it. seriously. LOVE IT.

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  12. Rocking the ponchos! We have zoo lights on our calendar too! Going with my moms club... I hope we get better weather ;).

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  13. "virtual reality friends" - BAHAHAHA!! That's awesome. I love that our husbands got along so well. I bet if we mentioned a brewery tour, or any sort of beer tasting event they'd be all for it. :)
    It really was so much fun. And, you got some AWESOME pictures! I took about 25 pics, and only a handful turned out *decent*.
    P.S. Santa fail photos are my favorite. This is going to sound totally terrible, but I was kind of wishing Marcus would have an expression similar to Mason's… #motheroftheyearaward

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  14. I seriously can't believe I haven't moved to California yet... I'm missing out on all the fun!! (ha ha!)
    This seriously sounds like the best time and I love that you got together with Desiree's family! This is when I wish we lived close to a zoo! I've seen so many posts about Christmas lights at the zoo and, well? My small town has nothing. Ugh!
    You know how I love that Santa photo :)

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  15. LOVE the Santa photo. Love it! Glad you and your "virtual reality friend" enjoyed each other's company. lol Guys are so funny.

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  16. So fun! Even with all that rain! I love that Santa photo! And how cool to meet up with blogger friends? That's the best. I need to get out to California.

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  17. Looks like a really fun night! I love that picture on santa's lap haha.
    Melanie @ meandmr.com

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