All Aboard...

Last Weekend on the 18th we gave Colby the most fun surprise I think we have ever given him. We left Brods with Mike and Taya, and took him to Williams, AZ to ride the Polar Express train at the Grand Canyon Railway. I was so excited it took everything I had in me, not to tell him, since I had booked this trip back in August. We stayed in the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. Our drive up was so fun. About 30 mi outside of Flagstaff the snow appeared. The ground was covered, and the road highway was just lined with pine trees and snow. The excitement just escalated! We didn't tell Colby anything except that he was getting a huge prize and we were taking him on a trip. After we checked in to the hotel, we told him and he was soooo excited. Just the weekend before he was begging us to go on a train one day and telling us how much he loved trains.

We decided to take the 8pm train so we had plenty of time to play and eat before we got on the train. The station was literally steps from the hotel, so we walked to the station picked up our tickets and looked at the two trains they had on display, and played in the snow for a little while.

How can you see all that snow and not have a snow ball fight? We finally found some soft snow over by the tracks. Most of it was like ice around the station, b/c it had been almost 2 weeks since it snowed.

You have to take what you dish out is all I'm saying. Daddy and I got smacked with so many ice balls that we had to give him a little bit of his own medicine (of course we were nice and found soft snow). He squealed and laughed it was so much fun.

Colby and I in the lobby before we got on the train. In our PJs all ready to go!

Waiting to board the train was so fun. Everyone was in the jammies and the kids and adults were all equally excited. Everyone was laughing and screaming as the train pulled up. It was truly a magical night. I really get teary eyed thinking about it. It was just that happy like a little dream land.

They really made everything so special. Everything was very simple, but really sweet.

Most of the train ride was in the dark, but we had to travel through a lighted "time tunnel", you know, to get to the North Pole. On the way we were served hot chocolate and cookies just like the book and movie by the sweetest chefs on the planet.

They read the book to us and walked up and down the isles carefully showing each page to the children. When we arrived at the North Pole, Santa and his giant sleigh and reindeer were in the town square waving at us, and all the toy shops and town were lit up behind him. It was a beautiful lights display (all the pictures were blurry). We sang songs and passed back by the North Pole one more time, and then much to our surprise....who appeared on the train....

Santa!!! As you can imagine the kids and adults went wild! It was really like being a little kid again, and if this is not the real Santa...I don't know who is!

Santa walked down through the car and gave each child a bell from his sleigh.

If you can see it, look at Colby's face after he got the bell...it was really incredible to watch him experience such joy!!

All he could do the rest of the ride was hold that bell to his ear and ring it. It was the perfect way to drown out all the rest of the worldly things and just experience the magic of this season.

The rest of the ride he was pretty quiet and quite tired. He was up way...way...way...past his bedtime, but that's what it was all about!

The next morning on the way home, we had to stop and enjoy the amazing scenery and soak up all that cold snow. So we just pulled over off (route 66, yes we can say we have driven on route 66) and played in the snow. We were sinking up to our knees in it, but managed to have Colby snap this great picture.

And we left, with the incredible memories we made in our hearts and this beautiful picture of snow covered forests in our minds! It was the best weekend ever, and there was no doubt about it we had caught the Christmas Spirit!