Smith Family: The Train to Bentleyville

Thursday, December 24, 2009

The Train to Bentleyville

What to do for family night? What to do.....

How about a TRAIN RIDE...

To see the Bentleyville Tour of Lights...

A little background for those of you not from here... "Bentleyville" was once a big light production out on some guys rural land every year, but this year they've decided to move it to the Bayfront in Duluth. It's completely volunteer organized and therefore free to visitors (donations welcomed though). Solei actually helped set up some of the reindeer one night for their youth activity.

Free vending booths lined the walking path, with free hot chocolate, popcorn, cookies, and marshmallows for roasting in the fire pits. Reindeer, snowmen and the Claus's were there to greet passersby, and a nearby field had been transformed into a skating rink, with the city lights as a backdrop.

I just couldn't get over all the hours that this must have taken to put together, and ALL VOLUNTEER! The locals here really know how to live it up in the winter...

I think Ella's chocolate was a little TOO hot...

Would you like a candy cane, little boy?

Mmm. popcorn...

Rudolf was too busy, so we got a photo with Prancer instead...

I thought this was fun -- a miniature local icon; the lift bridge...

Ella chose an appropriate pose to view this display...

And on to the rink...

Chugga chugga choo choo, goodbye Bentleyville...

3 comments:

Fairy Godmother said...: What a glorious Christmas evening you had. Just what everyone needs and wants at the holidays. Lovely!; December 24, 2009 at 10:42 PM
Anonymous said...: That is so wild! I can't believe people just put that whole thing together.; December 27, 2009 at 10:15 AM
Dan, Pam and Family said...: That's sounds amazingly fun.
What a cool event to take kids to.
Thanks for sharing.
Pam; December 28, 2009 at 3:25 PM

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The Mind of a Child...

When Solei was a toddler, she found some bark that was lying at the base of a tree and said in disgust, “Ooooooh! Tree poo-poo!”

When the girls were little, we were taking a walk with the dog who was bombarding Sierra with her friendly but slobbery kisses. Frustrated, our sweet little Sierra yelled out “NO KINA, I'M NOT YOUR ICE CREAM CONE!”

Telling Ella how to crawl, Caden explained “But I’m four, so I crawl standing up.”

I was sitting with Caden one day and I told him that the couch used to be a cow (it is leather), and I said (half jokingly) “did you know that cows turn into couches?” To which he replied, “No they don’t, they turn into pies!”

Watching the Tabernacle choir sing during conference, Solei (who was 8 yrs old at the time) said that they should sing “Do as I’m Doing” (with all the motions, I’m sure).

We put in an underground fence for the dog and Caden (age 5) saw us burying the wire. We then put up little white flags to mark where it was. A few days later he went outside and turned on the hose. When I saw him, I asked him to turn off the water. He looked at me questioningly and asked, “Until when? Until the fence grows?” He thought it needed watering!

Taron (2) looked at the varicose veins on grandmas legs and said, “owy... lightning!”

When Caden was 5, he would ask if he could go play with his friend in the morning, and I would sometimes reply, "No, it's too early". Well one day he finally asked me "can we not play on 'too early's? Can we play on 'one early'?"

Sierra told me one night that when she was little, she used to think the word “couch” came from the word “cow”, and that our couch had a cow inside (partially true since it is leather). She would try to sit down carefully so it would not run away. She thought the wood parts inside were it’s bones and the black pegs on the bottom were the feet.

Sometimes Taron (age 2) would find dog poop and say “Eew! Dog poop!” and then proceed to stomp on it as if it were a bug.

Caden (age 5) and I were talking about the sounds letters make and he asked if I knew what the sleepy letter was. I replied that I didn’t and he said, “It’s the Z... when you go to sleep then the Z’s come out of your head. And there’s a big round white thing too but it’s invisible. Maybe he had been reading too many comic books...

Sierra (age 8) made a Halloween card for her friend and wrote ENSTINE (meaning Einstein) on it, I thought it was an odd thing to put on a Halloween card so I asked if she knew who Einstein was and she said "Isn't he the guy who made Frankenstein?"

Caden (age 5) asked if it was a ghost who said the sacrament prayer because he couldn’t see anyone at the podium but he could hear the voice.

When Taron was 2 he would always respond to an “I love you” with “Much”.

Taron (3) woke up one morning, started to play and when I asked him if he wanted a pancake, he said, “Oh yeah, I was supposed to be hungry!”

Dad was singing “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam” and Taron said “Jesus likes sunbeans, they’re delicious!”

I was teaching Taron (5) how to read, and came upon the word "loose". I told him, "the two O's say "oo" and the E is silent. Slowly and deliberately, he sounded it out........"Loooosssilent".

Caden had been learning to tell time in school and was asking me about the big hand vs. the little hand on the clock. Apparently Taron was listening somewhat because he held up his right hand and asked "is this the big hand?"

Ella (4) came up to me with some of my reading glasses and said "Mom, when I put glasses on, I still don't know how to read!"

At a restaurant, Ella was impatiently waiting for her food and, looking for the waitress, she asked "when is the human coming back?"

One morning I said, "Ella, come look! There's a wild turkey in the backyard!"
Ella (excitedly): "Can we kill it?!?"
What kind of daughter am I raising???

Ella mistook another guy for Chris and was about to follow him to his car, but soon realized her mistake and said, "I was about to follow the 'not dad'".

Smith Family

Thursday, December 24, 2009

The Train to Bentleyville

3 comments:

The Mind of a Child...

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