Winterfest in Seattle

Alden and I had fun taking a Saturday to go up to the Seattle Center for Winterfest in December.  They had a model train set up that Alden really enjoyed watching, they had a fountain that did water displays to music, there was someone creating an ice sculpture and we got to go ice skating.  We had a really nice day just walking around exploring all the different things going on.  Alden was very entertained by everything and loved ice skating.  He wanted to keep skating even after Mommy was done.  He loved it and it is so fun seeing him grow up and try new things.

The first time we stopped by the train display the train wasn't running but Alden enjoyed telling me about the village scene.

This is the fountain that we stopped to watch.  As you can see there were a lot of kids running around in the water, even though it was a typical Seattle day with the temperatures hovering in the 40s.

Alden was mesmerized watching the fountain.  I took some videos of the fountain which you can watch below. The first video is more boring than the rest so that one can be skipped.
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4 - This one actually shows Alden and he is talking about the rainbow he can see in the water from the fountain.

This was where you could watch the guy doing ice sculpting.

Alden enjoyed watching the ice sculptor. 

Here you can see the almost completed ice sculpture versus the earlier version above.  The ones of the more completed version were taken after we went ice skating.

So I wasn't sure if I wanted to take Alden ice skating but I took him in to just watch people on the ice rink and he got so excited and kept asking to try so we did.

He was so excited to have his own little ice skates on and had no problem walking around in them on his own.

I asked someone to take a picture of us.  This was how we ended up skating around the rink.  They had walker-like things for little kids but Alden didn't like that.  He much preferred skating between my legs as I held his hands.  I was fairly proud of the fact that I managed to ice skate for more than half an hour with me being 26ish weeks pregnant and having Alden between my legs and we never fell.

Alden was not ready to be done ice skating.  He wanted to keep going but my body could only take so much.  I will have to take him again when there is someone else to help him or after I have this baby so that I can skate longer with him.  I am so glad that he enjoyed it so much!

After ice skating we went back to see the train actually running before we left.  Alden was very happy to sit and watch for the train.  He was very excited every time that it came by.

I thought that the winter village itself was really fun to look at.  There was lots of detail in the set up that made it really interesting.

After going to Winterfest we stopped in Bellevue on the way home to see a huge nativity display.  I love nativities and they always remind me of why the Christmas season is so special.  It was a nice quiet stop on the way home after a really fun day.