The Polar Express

Last weekend -you know, the weekend that snowed 11 inches overnight, and made roads icy and even closed down the freeway for a while- yeah, that weekend, we traveled to Heber City for a weekend with our Eberling grandparents. The trip there was scary. There were people sliding off the road all over the place. Our kids thought it was great. They kept yelling and cheering "Whew, that car slid into the snow bank and you can't see the whole front of their car, AWESOME!" "Yeah! That guy just spun around and around in circles! That's so cool! Dad, can you do that?" I would have gotten pictures, but I was too busy clenching my cheeks (You know which ones...) and holding my breath, I didn't even think of getting out the camera. We finally got there and settled into the motel, and hit the pool. That was the real reason for the trip, because who doesn't travel 100 miles in the middle of a blizzard in order to swim in a mediocre swimming pool and soak in a crowded hot tub? They don't look very happy here, but they really were having a good time. It was the picture taking they weren't thrilled about, not the pool.

After we got back to the room and got all dried off and changed Grandpa pulled out a present. It turns out that while he was on his way up to Heber Santa came up to him and asked if he knew Ethan and Adia. Of course he said yes. (Sometimes I'm unsure whether to admit that I know them or not, but not Grandpa, he fessed up right away) Santa had a present for Ethan and Adia and wanted Grandma and Grandma to deliver it for him. So they opened it...

It was tickets to ride the POLAR EXPRESS!

Ethan was THRILLED!

He danced around.

And jumped up and down. (Good thing we were on the bottom floor)

Adia wasn't so excited, she just put her coat on and waited for us to leave.

Grandpa told us a story about Jesus while we waited to leave.

The train station was beautiful all lit up at night.

Then the train pulled up...

We sat down and waited to board.

True to her character, Adia did some window shopping at the gift shop while we waited.

The kids posed for pictures while we waited.

(There was a lot of waiting)

We took pictures in front of the train.

I took pictures of the outside of the train. I got a bunch of really pretty ones, but no one else thought they were quite as impressive as I did... Story of my life, mom sees beautiful art, everyone else sees a dirty old train...

This is Adia talking to Santa, but the lighting created a funky shadow, so you can't see her, and I didn't notice until later.

We rode to the north pole and had hot cocoa and Mrs. Clause's famous cookies. Adia sang Christmas songs, and Ethan licked to frost off the windows-yuck, I know. I took a lot of pictures, but with the rough ride of the train and the REALLY bad lighting (I'm not kidding, the power actually went off for part of the ride.) Not many of them turned out. Finally we got to the North Pole and Santa came on board. Adia still wasn't very excited, and sat down in the corner of the seat, not even wanting him to see her. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that she was worried that she was on the naughty list, and she didn't want to face Santa and have him tell everyone that she wasn't getting anything for Christmas. I told her to ask him. When he came to us she whispered in his ear asking what list she was on. He told her that if she was good for the rest of the time until Christmas he would bring her something really good. That was all it took, she was excited after that.

After Santa left Mrs Clause came and gave us the Secret recipe for her cookies. One of the ingredients is an elf's giggle, so the announcer poked the elf until he giggled so that we could all catch a little to take home with us and use in our cookies.

Adia couldn't wait to see Mrs Clause. We wanted to visit with the person who "really runs the North Pole"

After all of that excitement Adia cuddled up with Grandma and fell asleep. Thanks for the great time Grandma and Grandpa, it is an experience we will remember forever.