Polar Express

This is a lengthy post everyone, sorry! This past weekend after Thanksgiving, we took the kids, and Ryan's sister and her family came along, and made the very long 6 1/2 hour drive to Durango to ride the Polar Express. We got there Friday evening and stayed until Sunday morning. It was totally worth the time and the money to see the kids faces and eyes,especially when Elle turned around and said, "I can't believe we are really going to the North Pole!" They started us out by bringing everyone out of the train station to wait for the train to arrive. While we were waiting, they started playing the story over the loud speakers. Then when the Polar Express song started, the train comes rolling up just like on the movie.


This last one is a little hard to see, but they had the conductor come out and had a little boy act out the part where he doesn't want to get on the train and the conductor tells him to decide because he has a schedule to keep.


So then we all boarded and they gave us our golden tickets to have the conductor punch later. The seats could turn and face each other like they did on the movie and there was a tree and lights and ornaments decorating the train. The conductor came through after we left and punched the tickets and they passed out hot chocolate and cookies while the Hot Chocolate song was playing. Then they read the story and showed everyone the book while it was playing.








So after riding for about 30 minutes, it is short because it is a "magic train,"
we arrived at the North Pole and saw Santa's village all lit up and Santa and the reindeer and the elves were outside waving. The kids got to stick their heads outside the windows and wave. So then we stopped for a few minutes and backed up and stalled while Santa got on the train, then we began our return trip. As we were going back, Santa came through each car and handed out bells like he gave the boy in the movie and we sang Christmas carols. Before he came into our car the chefs had everyone start cheering "Santa, Santa, Santa!" We even stopped for a second to let "Billy" off (the shy little boy from the movie) and as we passed they had "him" standing outside the train with his striped red and white present jumping up and down next to a house. When we got back they passed out hot chocolate souvenir mugs and we unloaded the train to see the real reindeer and sit on Santa's lap inside the train station. It was seriously one of the vacations I will probably like best forever because it was so much like the movie and the kids were totally enthralled.

Gavin DeGraw and David Cook

I won tickets to the Gavin DeGraw and David Cook concert by answering the mindbender on 100.3 right! I feel like such a celebrity now!:) Just kidding, but I did actually call in and win the mindbender and my prize was a Melting Pot gift card and tickets to this concert, with a meet and greet ticket included. So we got to meet two real famous people! I am officially a Gavin DeGraw fan now, he is such a great performer! David Cook was good, but he doesn't really sing my style of music. It was pretty fun and we met a girl who was literally determined that she is going to marry David Cook so it was funny seeing her trying to get backstage to get invited to his afterparty. Ryan is not really a concert scene type of guy, so he decided he didn't want to go, plus he would have missed the BYU game, heaven forbid!

Scary!

We went rock climbing with our friends last month and I thought it was scary. Jesse is a rock climber so he has all the gear and we tagged along with them. Elle and Reese both did it and did really well, but me on the other hand, I am a whimp. We are on the edge of a mountain and right below us is the highway. I looked down and about threw up. Ryan got almost to the top and probably could have kept going if he had shoes that fit him. Jesse's shoes were a little small on him. I will spare you all the pictures of me and my backside. I thought rapelling was scary too. Let's just say the whole thing was a lot different than climbing on a rock wall in a gym.

See what I mean about the highway being right below?!

1st day of 2nd Grade and Pre-K

I cannot believe Elle is in 2nd grade!! The amount of time she has been alive right now, she will be driving in that much more time, and it has flown by! Reese is in Pre K this year back up in Evergreen. It is our last year driving up there! Hooray!!

This is Elle and her friend Jacob, who have been friends since they were tiny babies

Mt Sniktau and Breckenridge

We took the kids to hike a 13er this summer because Elle has been begging to hike and I don't think she is ready for a 14er. So we took them to Mt Sniktau on Loveland Pass. Let's just say...we didn't make it. I know that was suspenseful, right? Elle probably could have made it but she knew we were going to Breckenridge afterwards and that is currently her favorite place on earth. Reese, there is no way. She did pretty darn good though because it was a lot harder than we bargained for. The pictures in the river are in Breckenridge. The water was FREEZING!!

Commerce City Swordfish

Elle did swim team through the rec center this summer and I have to say, even though it was a lot of practice and early meets, she is a really good swimmer so it was fun to watch. They actually only had five meets, three of which were on Sunday, so we only had to suffer through two meets. Swim meets, for those of you who have never been, start early and last long and are very hot because they are either in a humid indoor pool or outside during the heat of the day. But we had fun watching her and cheering her team on. She did the breaststroke, freestyle, backstroke, and relays. Her favorite is the breaststroke. I don't know folks, but we may have the next Michaela Phelps on our hands.

Elle and Cydnee before the races. Cydnee liked to play mom to Elle and the other two young girls on the team

Poor girl lost her goggles during this race and got slowed up, but she didn't stop to fix them like I thought she would.

Camping

Ahhh...camping, gotta love it. Acutally, I do like camping until it gets to the sleeping part and the unpacking part. We went with our friends, the Eatons, to Salida in August so that Nate and Ryan could hike a 14er that is out there. Needless to say, it was a little harder than they bargained for. We took the kids to feed the chipmunks at St. Elmo's and let them play in the creek, roast smores, and run around getting filthy. It was a fun camping trip though. On the way up, we stopped at the famous Coney Island that has been featured on Travel Channel. The kids LOVED it, but the hot dogs were not all they were cracked up to be.