We took a four day trip to the lodge at the mountain the week before Christmas (lots and lots of pictures of that coming soon!) and drove up to Hood River one of the mornings to take the kids to a toy store and walk around a little.
This town at Christmas time gives me all of the Hallmark feels. From the large tree in the town center to the streets lined with holly and ivy, taking a break from the snow to visit was a must.
I mean look at this tree!!
The toy store we drove up to visit is called G. Willikers Toy Shop and it is the cutest! Every time we visit Hood River, we like to take the kids to this toy store. It’s like the toy stores you see in a Hallmark movie or in the middle of New York City. It has the small town meets big city meets old fashioned toy store feel, if that even makes sense?! Take a look for yourself:
Charlie walked away with nothing other than a dinosaur, of course. He proudly carried that bag all over town for the rest of the morning being sure not to lose sight of it. If you follow me on Instagram then you have seen me post his ever growing dinosaur collection on my story more than once!
I love this kids obsession with dinosaurs. He has a bunch of dinosaur books and has actually learned their scientific names like “Tyrannosaurs and Stegosaurus.” It’s so cute to hear him try to say such big words.
Now that the kids are a little older, traveling with them has become so much easier. They are ok if they don’t nap right on schedule and they do really well in the car for longer periods of time. We just played lots of Christmas music and then put on some children’s audio books when they got bored.
It’s also so nice not to have babies who are breastfeeding or taking bottles. Life gets significantly easier when you don’t have to pack all of your pumping/breastfeeding supplies, right mamas?!
I will be sharing the rest of our trip to the mountain in a post later this week with lots and lots more photos! We are headed back again in two weeks and I can’t wait! I cherish our little trips as a family so much and am looking forward to the many more that we will have!
On another note, I took our Christmas tree down today! I think this is the earliest I have ever taken down the Christmas decorations. We were iced in all day and getting restless so I decided to just do it now and get it out of the way. Too early?! I always am sad when Christmas is over, but it also feels so so good to have a clean, pine needle free house again 😉
