Polar Express

A week ago we surprised the kiddos with tickets for the Polar Express!!! They have been SOOO excited. Anyone that would listen, heard from Kyle, that we were going to wear our PJ's and travel to the North Pole. So Thursday afternoon, we drove up to Williams, Arizona. The train depot was covered with lights, and had such a great atmosphere. Although there were tons of people, there was no pressure, or rudeness, everyone was just too STINKIN' excited!! We boarded the train (and yes, the conductor did say "ALL ABOARD!", which gave Kyle the thrill of a lifetime!) Once we were on our way, we all enjoyed Hot Chocolate and fresh chocolate cookies, made by none less than Mrs. Clause!!

Carter even tried to get in on the action!Next the conductor read the story while we followed along in our book.

Now, you may be confused at this point, and be asking yourself "How did you get to the North Pole in a mere 30 minutes?" Well, we went through a time warp! Yes, folks a TIME WARP (the time warp may of been about a 1/2 mile section of track that was lined with a wall of white lightbulbs, but for the sake of our story it was a time warp.) Here are the kiddos faces, after we went through the time warp. I LOVE IT!

When we got to the North Pole we saw Santa, standing in his sleigh, an elf piling toys, the reindeer, and his giant Christmas tree. At this point, the train came to a stop, and the conductor announced that due to the time of year that it was, and the number of children, we wouldn't be able to stop to talk to Santa, and that the train was going to turn around, to go back to the depot, and we would at least be able to wave to Santa one last time. However, when we got back to Santa's sleigh he was gone!!! A few seconds later, you will never guess who walked through the door of our train car!

Each child got a bell and a hug from Santa!

The rest of the train ride home was filled with merry jingle bell ringing, and Christmas caroling. The kids loved every minute of it.

The next day, we decided to go to a local deer farm. You walk in the gate and about 30 deer instantly surround you waiting for food. Kyra loved every minute of it. By the end she was covered in deer boogers from head to toe, and wanted to stay forever. Kyle, was less than amused. I wouldn't say he HATED it, but pretty close. Everything about the whole situation just freaked him out. That many deer, surrounding you, going through your pockets looking for food, and getting covered in dirt was SOO not his thing. He spent the majority of the time hiding behind Karls legs, with his eyes closed (I'm sure going to his happy place), or else yelling at the deer that if they pushed him one more time, they were going to go in time out! He did like feeding the baby deer though.

They also had some reindeer, elk, wallabees, turkeys, peacocks, donkeys, etc that you could look at and put through the fence.

After that we headed back to Sunset Crater National Park. Its about 20 min. north of Flagstaff,and is the location of a volcanic eruption about 1000 years ago. It was interesting to see this area covered in pine trees, and then one foot to the right was just black rock, where nothing was growing.

There was still some snow on the ground, and that was by far Kyra's favorite aspect of the crater site. We put a snowball on Carters tray just to see what he would think of it. It started out well...Yum!!Wait this is a little cold!!Wait, I haven't learned how to drop things yet!WHAT IS THIS THING!!!???
We headed back to Phoenix and hit just about rush hour. So we pulled off to eat, and realized that we were only about 10 minutes from the temple, and this might be our one chance this season to see the lights. It was really pretty warm, we just needed light jackets. Of course the temple was beautiful, and the lights were stunning. The visitors center was wonderfully decorated as well. Among the regular displays there was a collection of nativities from throughout the world.