The Polar Express and The Grand Canyon

So there's a town a few hours north of Phoenix called Williams. And in Williams there's a train called The Grand Canyon Railway. In November and December, they transform this train into the The Polar Express. I'd heard wonderful things about The Polar Express from my sister, who did it last year with her family, so I decided it would be super fun to go! We went in mid-November.

As soon as we arrived in Williams, I was charmed by how cute the town was. It is surrounded by forest and has all the cute diners and shops that comes with an old-school small town. It is also very much what you'd think of when you think of a Route-66 town.  :-)  Anyway, we checked into the Super 8, changed the kids into PJ's, and grabbed an early dinner at a place called Pine Country Restaurant. They're famous for their pies, so after dinner I ordered a lemon meringue pie. Yum!

And ignore Michael's awful facial hair. I HATE NO SHAVE NOVEMBER! ;-)

Anyway, we got to the train station and got ready to board. The kids were so excited! (Especially Matthew).

The workers were dressed up like the characters in the book and they danced, served us cookies and hot chocolate, and read us the book. (I'd bought Matthew the book a few weeks prior and had let him watch the movie too so he was familiar with everything). Kate was squirmy, but the snacks helped a lot. Haha.

And then we made it to the North Pole! It was all lit up so the kids looked out the window and waved to Santa on his sleigh. The train then reversed and when we went back the other way, Santa was gone! (He'd gotten on the train).

We sang Christmas carols until Santa appeared in our car! Matthew's face lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw Santa. So cute. Santa gave each kid a bell and the kids totally loved it.

We got back, looked at he lights around the train station, and headed back to our hotel. We were all exhausted but Kate whined in her Pack-n-Play until after midnight (!!!!!) so none of us slept that well.

The next morning we (sleepily) drove the 45 minutes to The Grand Canyon. I've lived in Phoenix for almost three years and had never been, so it was more than time! It was seriously SO SO cold and I did not adequately prepare for that in how I dressed everyone (oops!!!) but since the kids are so small, we didn't stay much longer than an hour anyway. It's not like we wanted to do any hikes or anything - I mostly just wanted to finally see it. And it sure is beautiful!

And then we headed home. It was a super fun mini-vacation, though after all the traveling we'd been doing it sure was nice to know that we were done with road trips for a while.  :-)