Sunday, December 23, 2012

Polar Express

Last Sunday we did something I always wanted to do and something we knew our train/car/truck/any kind of vehicle lover toddler would LOVE...we rode the local polar express train ride!!!  We have a railroad museum here that has a few depots and it goes from the main depot to one on the other side of town.  We booked our ride back in October and of course it was the rainiest day of the entire month so far.  Haha!  That's ok, our little man didn't care!  We dressed him in his pjs and off we went!
 Nicholas was mesmerized with the entire ride.  He loved looking at the lights and spent a good part of the trip just looking out the window.  I thought these pictures were just so sweet.

 It was really cute because the main depot was decorated and Christmasy, but after you go through a tunnel through the ridge, you get to the North Pole (a very decorated depot).  On the way the elves (or train employees, whatever) read The Night Before Christmas and sang some fun songs that Nicholas enjoyed singing with them.  Here we are singing Here Comes Santa Claus, our favorite!
 We went on the ride with our good friends, The Miller family.  Nicholas was so excited to ride "Santa train" with Tate!  The entire way there he kept screaming, "Santa train with Tate!"
 When we pulled up to the North Pole, Santa was on the same side of the train the Millers were on, so we literally threw Nicholas to Amy so he could see him before we passed him.  Here he is screaming "SANTA!!!!"
 When we stopped and the announced overhead, "Santa is on board", Nicholas promptly sat down, put his hands in his lap, and without making a move, kept saying, "Ichas good boy!"  We all just died laughing!  It was hysterical and so sweet!  Yes, Nicholas, you are a VERY good boy!!!
Well, it was all good until Santa came up from behind him and then after all the good Santa pictures of the past two years and waving at the mall, we finally had our scared Santa moment.  He wouldn't let go of Michael and had NOTHING to do with Santa...

Until Santa came back through at the end of the ride and he gave him a high five and said, "bye, Merry Christmas!"  Of course I had already put my camera up and missed that!  Needless to say, this was definitely worth the money and something we've already decided to keep on the annual Christmas calendar.  The boys loved it and so did we!