The Polar Express

We finally made it to the Polar Express. This trip was long awaited (we made the reservations in March) and much anticipated since we went for the first time 2 years ago. We couldn't have asked for better weather, big fluffy flakes of snow falling continuously, covering everything with a crisp clean winter blanket.

Here is the whole gang...Diego, Zoe, Logan, Caden, Ally, Mitch and Vinny. It was a complete (and fun) coincidence that all the boys ended up in the same PJs.

On the way to the North Pole, Kelly read the story to the kids.

Our Chef for our ride was Mimi. She took great care of us. She passed out the yummiest hot cocoa "Like melted chocolate bars" with chocolate chip cookies.

When we arrived at the North Pole, Santa hopped aboard the train and passed out a bell from his sleigh to each boy and girl. Even Caden.

And on our train ride back, Mimi lead us in Christmas Carols. Logan even volunteered to sing Jolly Ol' St. Nicolas to the entire train car. I'll post the video when I figure out how...hint to Shawn :) Sadly, this is the only pic I got of the outside of the train... you get the idea, right? It was a magical time and a wonderful way to celebrate the Christmas season.

More Holiday Hoopla

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

While we were in Williams, it snowed over 10 inches! We couldn't have asked for a better taste of winter for all these So Cal Kids.

Here are the Moms

This was our second trip to the Polar Express and hopefully not our last

Logan LOVES to catch snowflakes on his tongue!

Holiday Hoopla part 4

Our stay in Flag was short, in fact, we really only had time to eat. We stopped at Crystal Creek for dinner, played some pool and ate the YUMMIEST BLT w/avocado sandwiches in the world. And for brunch we hit another college days favorite, Mike and Rhonda's for biscuits and gravy (that's what I had, I honestly don't remember what Shawn ordered, wait now i remember. He had the largest chili burger in the world, which was nice because I have been craving chili lately and the one time I had some, Caden punished me dearly for it. Anyway back to the story). Before breakfast we had to get a little snow time in, you can see Caden didn't really know what to think of all the white stuff, but then again, we didn't really give him much of a chance to experience it either. By the time we finished brunch, the snow was falling pretty steady so we decided to get on the road before driving conditions got bad...Shawn is a bit paranoid about using tire chains. Off to Williams we go to the Polar Express.

Holiday Hoopla part 3

It just so happened that our hotel in Tempe was right across the street from Game Works, aka Shawn's Heaven on Earth. We got over then when it opened and it was dark when we pulled into Flagstaff.

Holiday Hoopla part 2

On day 1 of Christmas vacation, we headed out on our first roadtrip with Caden. We were a bit nervous, not knowing what to expect from our little man. Our first stop, Phoenix AZ, where we met up with Bradi and her family, who were visiting their families during the holidays. We grabbed a quick and somewhat chaotic bite of pizza and topped off the meal with a scrumptious dessert that brought out the inner piranha in each of the kids.

It was Caden's first chance to meet those crazy Portland folks!