Christmas Cousins

so, my brother Barrett and his family came to visit us for a week! it was some awesome family fun time for all. (minus Jason who is working 14+ hour days.) Anna was excited for months about Henry's visit, and couldn't wait to take him to the train. if you remember from previous posts, the train is sort of Henry and Anna's thing.

we went to stillman mccormick train park in scottsdale - twice! the kids had so much fun waving to all the people they passed by, even Maddie got in on the act. on our train ride friday night, she was waving with the best of them. (despite the bitter cold.)


i call this series of photos, "you lookin' at me?" so, one big difference i notice in Anna and Maddie's personalities so far is that Madeline is sort of a dare devil, and Anna - not so much. Anna sat in this swing happily watching Henry and Madeline swing, "high in the sky." she on the other hand did not want to swing AT ALL, even a wind gust was too scary. we'll see how that develops. it definitely tests my patience, since i was more outgoing as a kid.
we also visited the wildlife world zoo. this is my favorite zoo. the phoenix zoo is okay, but this one seems more authentic. you get to feed the animals which is worth the drive.
something that surprised me, floored me really, was Anna's total bravery with the animals. she was all over feeding the giraffe, and even braved the petting zoo. and this is not your ordinary petting zoo - the animals are, well, animals. they are very aggressive and have even made grown men cry. they wait by the feeders and literally attack the people getting food. a deer actually ate part of Anna's dress, but she happily petted it and gave it food. i was stunned.
back at the train park, we rode the Christmas train and saw such characters as Barney, Henry's personal favorite. oh how i wish i snapped a pic of him dancing with this large purple dinasaur.
this picture sums up the week of fun. here we are all together smiling! it was a blast. we hope our cousins come back soon! though i'm told Barrett won't have another break until summer after the boards. good luck Bear.
i wish this could have been our Christmas card, the ones of our individual family weren't as good. funny how that works, you take a million like, "here lets try to get a shot for our Christmas card," and none of them are too good. and then you pat the guy in front of you on the train and ask him to take a quick shot of all 8 of you before the train takes off and you get perfection. oh well, better luck next year.