Visiting Santa & C130s

One Saturday earlier this month, one of the squadrons on base was hosting a fundraiser by charging $5 for a family photo op in front of a C130 on the flight line. We gladly took them up on the offer! None of our pictures turned out great b/c the sun was so bright that morning, so just ignore our squinty eyes. ;)  Even though are pictures didn't turn out perfectly, I think it is a great memory of our time here at Keesler AFB!

Since we were already up, dressed, & out of the house that Saturday morning, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to go visit Santa at our local mall. We weren't sure how Shelby would do since she wasn't too whooped up about the idea at Beauvoir, but she did really well! There was about a 5 minute wait, and the whole time we waited in line Shelby kept telling us "No Santa" but we kept reminding her she would get a candy cane. ;)  When it was our turn, Shelby was a little timid & nervous. But as soon as Santa started talking to her, she totally warmed up to him! And we got our first smiling photo with Santa this year!

Christmas 2012, 2 years old

The photographer actually got a couple good shots of Shelby with Santa, so it took us about 5 minutes or so to decide on which pose was our favorite and then to decide on which package we were going to buy. As we were hemming & hawing over our decisions, Shelby was totally content in Santa's lap chatting him up. When we finally called her away from Santa, we noticed she had like 3 or 4 candy canes in her hand. We immediately assumed she had grabbed them unbeknownst to Santa, so we quickly told her to put them back. To which Santa replied: "No, no, no! I gave them to her b/c she was so cute!" ;)

Just for fun...here's a look at Shelby's first two pictures with Santa:

Christmas 2010, 3 months old

Christmas 2011, 15 months old

After we were done with our Santa pictures, we walked around the mall a bit. On our way out of the mall, we had to pass by Santa again. Shelby went straight over to the bench and started waving and yelling "Hi, Santa!" over and over and over again. We probably sat on the bench and watched Santa for a good 5-10 minutes. The girl just couldn't get enough Santa. Thankfully, Santa was a good sport about it and would wave hello to Shelby in between visiting with other children. ;)

Shelby waving to Santa :)

Our last stop in the mall was at the carousel. This was Shelby's first carousel ride, so we were all very excited! Mommy got to ride with her and Daddy snapped pictures with our phone.

Shelby LOVED it! As we left the mall, she kept saying "more horsies! more horsies!" ;)  What a fun Saturday morning!!