Our Trip on the Polar Express

If you can't tell by my recent amount of crazy posting, one of my goals for the new year is to catch up on this blog...and everything else in my life! We will see how that works out... I am making some progress for now.
Awhile back, I read some article in a parenting magazine about a family that did little surprises every once in awhile with their kids. Some were just a simple picnic to the park, and others were more extravagant. Ever since, I have tried to work a little surprise in here and there where we just get in the car and go and don't tell them what we are doing. They love it, although sometimes it is hard to not tell or listen to them ask 10,000 times where we are going. We planned a special Christmas "family adventure" and couldn't wait to take them!!! Our little surprise trip was to ride the North Pole Express! I have wanted to do it for a few years, and this year we were debating on taking a Disney trip, but things didn't work out, so I decided that we would do this instead. Not quite a fair trade, but it was something fun. So, on Thur. Dec 9th, we checked Logan out of school early, and hit the road.
Here is our little traveler ready to go and so curious to where we were going. Part of the surprise was also new DVD players for the car, since ours broke about a month before. The new one has 2 screens and the kids were in heaven. I played the movie "The Polar Express" when we started, and thought the kids would catch on, but they still had no clue where we were going. They were excited though! A funny side note to our trip... We were running a little behind, as always, and then it took longer to check Logan out and get gas and stuff and when we put the address in the GPS, it said we would arrive 5 minutes after the train left and we were supposed to be there 30 minutes early to board. I panicked!!! I was so stressed out! Luckily, my husband watches lots of those movies where they drive way too fast and he was able to considerably cut down on the time. I think he might have hit 100 mph once or twice... We got there 25 minutes before the train left! Woo-hoo!

On the way down, Santa called my kids! Logan and Rylee were both SO excited to hear that he had gotten their letters and they were both on the nice list. It was another fun little surprise! (No pictures of Logan for some reason...)

About a half hour before we got there, Rylee did this... I have no idea how you can sleep like that!

Once we were getting closer, we were trying to give them some more hints. They still weren't getting it, so I pulled out the book, The Polar Express and started reading to them. I thought Logan would catch on since he had a little friend who was going on the Polar Express and he had been begging to go since he found out, but he still didn't. At the end, some tickets fell out of the book and I told them what they were for. They were so excited! Then, we pulled out some PJs for them to open. We decided to give them their Christmas PJs early so they could wear them on the train.

Logan was stoked about his Star Wars jammies.

We had to wake poor Rylee up and she was a little grumpy at first, but got excited really quick.

Once we arrived, we had to quickly change them into their jammies and rush over to the train, thinking we were running late, but they still hadn't boarded so we were in good shape! Here is Logan ready to ride the train!!! He was super excited about going on the Polar Express, and maybe even more excited to see his friend, Gracie there - one more fun surprise for him!

Our little family ready for a ride on the Polar Express!

I wanted a picture of the girls with the sign, but I couldn't get their boots on over their jammies, so I had to hold them.

The train was so cute and all decorated for Christmas! We were so excited!!!

When I told my good friend that we were doing the Polar Express this year, she thought it sounded fun and looked into it, too. They ended up being able to go on the same day that we had booked, so it was really fun to have them on the train with us. Logan is getting so big that he would much rather sit with his friends than his family! Here he is with his cute buddy, Gracie. (He does have a crush on her...He will tell you if you ask him...)

Mommy and Avery

Daddy and Ry

The kids got little songbooks to sing the songs with and Logan was really into reading his.

On the way to the North Pole, Mrs Claus served us delicious hot chocolate, chocolate cookies and a candy cane. Avery was LOVING it! Rylee was thrilled with seeing Mrs Claus, until Logan told her it wasn't the REAL Mrs Claus. I don't know why, but he wasn't impressed with her...little stinker! Avery was just happy about the cookies and candy!

Logan having some hot chocolate

We are getting close to the North Pole now. Once we got there, we saw Santa out the window and the kids were so excited...OK...so was I! We had to sing loud so Santa could find us..

Singing for Santa...

Avery wasn't sure what to think when Santa boarded the train!

The BIG GUY!!!

Rylee looking a little star struck

Santa greeted all of the kids by name and talked to them for a quick second and gave them each a special little top. Here is Rylee getting hers.

She loves Santa!

Avery was a little worried about Santa, but she did OK. No tears! And she really liked the top he gave her. Santa and my handsome Logan

Santa with Logan and Gracie

Since Logan got a better picture with Santa, I asked if Ry could too. He was really nice to take another one.

Ry and her top

After Santa left, we sang Christmas carols all the way back to the train station. Rylee got to be the "6 swans a-swimming" for the 12 days of Christmas and she loved holding up her sign.

Logan and his song book... He got to take it home and we used it in the car for several weeks and sang the 12 days of Christmas MANY times!

Another family picture...minus Logan who was sitting with his friends.

Daddy and Avery

The little star singers! Logan and Gracie - Rylee, Brooke and Whitney - They had a microphone on our train car and let these kids all do a solo to "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town". They were really the only ones who were really excited about singing, so they were kind of the entertainment for everyone else on the train. They had so much fun together! We were so glad it worked out to go the same night as our friends - It made it so much more fun for all of us!

I love this picture!

Our cute kids back at the train station. What a fun ride!

After the Polar Express, we went to Park City for dinner with the Watkins and ate at Cafe Rio. Then, we had another fun surprise for the kids - We were staying in a hotel! That is one of their VERY favorite things ever! Darren found a sweet deal on a really nice hotel at the Canyons and we were really excited to try their pool. It was so late when we got there, but we had to go for a swim. It was about 10 o'clock by the time we got down there, but the kids were still going strong! It was an outdoor pool and the setting was gorgeous up in the mountains with snow everywhere! It was COLD outside, but the water was SO warm and we had a great time...

except for poor Avery. I think she was mostly just tired, but she was pretty unsure about the pool and I think a little cold. She had the death grip on Darren and I the whole time and didn't really enjoy it.

This one liked it though! Ry has turned into a little fish and LOVES the pool! She had a blast!

Logan LOVED it, too! It was almost impossible to get them out of the pool. To be honest, I didn't want to get out either. It was COLD outside!!! It was almost 11 by the time we got them out of there but we had such a fun night, and another fun day in store the next day! I love spending time with our little family!!! I think this might be a new fun tradition for us. Maybe not every year, but we will definitley do it again.