Reindeer Festival

Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah puts on a fun Reindeer Festival each year highlighting their interesting reindeer exhibit. Did you know that all of Santa's reindeer live at the zoo, the whole crew - Dasher, Blitzen, Rudolph and even Olive as in "all of the other reindeer"? We received quite and education about reindeer and can't believe how much their antlers have grown since our last visit at the beginning of November. They grow 3/8" a day!

We attended this event on a COLD morning last Saturday with the Issaquah Mom's group. We made sure to dress her in several layers but didn't remember gloves and scarves for ourselves.


And where Santa's reindeer hang out, Santa's bound to be close by. In the photo above Clara's face lit up when she watched Santa emerge from his hut in the reindeer area and walk toward us. We have been reading a lot of books and talking about him a lot at home. She knows he says "ho,ho,ho" and when asked about Santa, Clara will say, "Santa brings toys...and CANDY!" After her fearful response to him last year, we were not sure what to expect this year.

Luckily we made it to Santa's house just at the right time to watch one family get their photo with him and for Clara to have a little conversation with him. At first she was not willing to even go near him. She preferred to squawk at him from across the room but tensed up quite a bit when Kevin asked if she would sit on his lap. Once he offered her the chocolate and a giraffe to hold she was a little more comfortable but the best we could do was get a family show with Clara on Kevin's lap. After we left she went back to jabbering on about Santa. Our favorite line being, "Santa is a nice boy."

Sitting in Santa's sleigh with Mommy

Listening to a Christmas story with Daddy

Checking out the deer with Lachlan and Kyler

We warmed up for a while in the craft area while Clara wrote a nice letter to Santa Claus. She was pretty proud of her work and liked the idea of putting it in the mailbox.

Watching the animals together. This trip Clara seemed to like the wallabies and alpacas best and was not scared by the cranes. She liked the adult tigers but was really upset when the baby tigers were playing rough with one another and burst into tears.

Clara and Daddy having fun in the sleigh of toys!