North Pole Express

Yesterday afternoon we headed to downtown Grapevine with our friends, the Arnolds, to ride the North Pole Express train.  This is something that I heard about last year and just sounded like so much fun, so I was excited when Kara invited us to go with them. It ended up being a perfect day to go.  It was great weather and the crowds weren't too big yet. 

All of the kids are supposed to wear their jammies on the train, so of course we brought Emily in her jammies (I don't have Christmas ones yet. . .we will for next year) and bundled her up.  We met up a little bit before our train left and hit the bounce house.  This was Emily's first time in a bounce house and she loved it!  Daddy was a trooper and went in with her.  She enjoyed just crawling back and forth.  And since we got there early, Emily and Hudson were able to have it all to themselves for a while.

Here's Hudson. . .mid jump

After playing in the bounce house and having a snack, we stopped by the ornament making tent.  Emily picked out a snowman to make.  Daddy helped her put it all together.

By now it was time to get in line for the train.  There was a 30 minute show before we boarded.  The show helped us all get into the Christmas spirit.  We sang lots of Christmas carols.  Emily enjoyed the show, but I think she liked looking at the decorations inside the tent even better. 

Emily's crazy smile makes me laugh.

At the end of the show, the train conductor came out and sang.  He looked just like the conductor from the Polar Express book.

 When we got outside of the tent to board,  it was "snowing".  It was actually pretty neat. 

Once on-board, we sang more Christmas carols and they read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  It was about a 30 minute train ride in the historical Grapevine trains.  I had never been in them before, so it was pretty neat.  They have really big windows on either side which Emily loved to look out.  She saw lots of plains landing at the airport.  I think Shawn enjoyed seeing them too.  The highlight of the trip was when Santa came on-board.  Emily gave Santa a huge smile. 

Kara and Hudson singing the Christmas carols.

 They came and collected our tickets just like they do in the book too.

 Emily and Shawn loved looking at the planes.  These are kind of fuzzy, but still cute pics.

If only you could see her face...she had a huge smile on her face.

 Hudson doing some more dancing.

 Poor Luke, by the end of the train ride, he was so tired.

And I had to get a picture of the boys with their babies. . . Hudson didn't want to stand in the picture.

We had such a fun time that I think this will need to become a yearly tradition!  Thanks again Kara for inviting us!