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!