Polar Express

Every year in Williams, AZ the Grand Canyon Railway turns into the Polar Express and travels the North Pole. :) In order to ride, you have to make reservations a year ahead of time. We made our reservations last January and we didn't tell the kids a thing about it. We spent the night in Prescott with Mom and Dad McBride. The morning of our train ride, we had the kids watch the animated Polar Express movie. Then later, we said we were going somewhere special. When we got to the train station, we went to get our tickets and we had the ticket master tell the kids where they were going. Logan and Landon got so excited! They couldn't believe they were actually going to ride the Polar Express to the North Pole!

Before we got on the train, we got to go visit with Mrs. Claus and write letters to Santa. There were gift shops and a line to take pictures with Santa. Logan and Landon are waiting in line to sit on Santa's lap. Papa is holding Marlee while in line.


Logan was born in Logan, UT, but he was only 1 year old before we moved to AZ, so he doesn't remember the snow. This is the kids first time playing in snow. They thought it was pretty neat. It was weird to be so cold and to touch snow again. We were so glad we could drive back home and not have to live in it. We'll definitely have to visit it again sometime though.

Nanny made special bathrobes for the boys to wear on the train (thank you Nanny!!). On the train they served hot chocolate and a cookie. On the way to the North Pole, they told the story of the Polar Express. On the way back, we sang Christmas songs the whole way until Santa came on board and gave each kid a bell of their own (it was a nice bell too, not a tin piece of you know what).
The train is taking off!! Yay!!


Going on the Polar Express was a special family activity that we won't forget soon. It was fun to have Nanny and Papa along with us. We won't do it every year, but I'm sure we'll do it again sometime in the near future. The kids loved it!

Wanna hear a funny joke?

I stole this joke from my cousin's blog---it's too funny! Lock me up!!

The Bathtub Test

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director how you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized. "Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, and then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub." "Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup." "No."said the Director, "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?"

Performing Polynesian style :)

For those of you who don't know already, I have been polynesian dancing since February. It started out as a Samoan woman (Tia) in my ward teaching a few of us a couple dances to perform for the Relief Society birthday for Enrichment. None of us expected it to be a long term committment. But after the Enrichment, a few more activities came up that we would need to perform for. It has just kept going and going and more and more people are asking us to perform for them. We now know 6 dances as a group (I know 8). I would be embarrassed if everyone knew how much time and thought I put into my polynesian dancing. I haven't been really good at something for a long time---probably since clogging. I don't have any real strong talents (for show anyway), so it's been exciting to find a new talent and to be pretty good at it. I help teach the new girls that join the group, and my instructor has told me that I do all the dances like a real polynesian....that made me feel really good. Last night we performed for the city of Casa Grande. Every year they have an Electric Lights parade with entertainment downtown before the parade starts. We were the finale of the entertainment. Here are some pictures of us dancing:

From the island of Hawaii (I'm in the middle back cuz I'm "tall")

From the island of Samoa

From the island of Tahiti

Another Hawaiian dance (yes, we are wearing skin colored leotard tops) :) I'm so happy to be dancing next to my dear friend Jocey...I love her!

From the Tongan islands

Another Samoan dance (I'm in the middle again)

I really love being in this group, and I love my instructor too. I've made really good friends by being a part of this, it really is so much fun to dance and perform. Plus it's great exercise--we practice twice a week for at least an hour and a half each time. Maybe I'll figure out how to put a video clip on my blog and you can see us in action sometime. I guess that's it. :)