Toledo Zoo lights

Every year the zoo puts up millions (maybe an exaggeration?) of Christmas lights and extends their open hours into the evenings so people can come see them.  After Jesse finished finals, we bundled up the kids and trucked down to see them!

It was suuuper cold (mid 20s, I think) so we tucked the kids into the stroller with as many layers and blankets as we thought we could get away with, and set off to explore.

Unfortunately I only have a handful of extremely blurry cell phone shots of the beautiful lights, but take my word for it that they were breathtaking!

But doesn't the blurriness make Jesse look like he's pushing the stroller into a hyperspace jump up there? (Also, can you tell we just saw Star Wars and LOVED it?!)

After a while in the cold we stepped into the cozy Aquarium to warm up for a bit. It was PACKED in there so Niko rode on my shoulders:

And then we took the best family selfie we could manage:

Miriam got hungry during the expedition and after a few minutes' struggle to find some warm water (the water in the bathroom was cold cold!) we gave her a bottle, propped up so we could keep exploring. She took it in stride :)

In addition to the lights, we got to see a few reindeer brought in just for this occasion (such lovely animals!), which was a big hit with all of us. 

All in all it was a really magical night, and well worth the cold extremities!