If you haven’t been up to Williams, AZ for the Polar Express-its time to make it happen.  It was such a good time and it helped that Zane loves trains!  Tim and I were in Flagstaff so we met up with my mom, dad, grandma, and kids in Williams on Wednesday before Christmas.  Here is my story… (insert title page here)

The day the kids arrived (and our peace and quiet ended) the car opened and a kid explosion happened.  It was freezing, I mean freezing (to a desert girl) and we wrapped up the kids as best we could and ran to the hotel room to gear up for snow.  Zane LOVED his thermals (we purchased at Wal-Mart while waiting for the kids to arrive) and wanted to put his “pullah beer jammies” on as quickly as possible.  Zoe on the other hand was no fan of thermals!  She opted to stay indoors while we took Zane and Gage out for some snow play.

We somehow stayed dry and warm but had to maneuver little mittens several times.  After snowplay, we wandered over to the train depot to show Zane the REAL train.  He was completely amazed.  We played over there for a while.  Gage managed to wipe his snowy wet paw, oh excuse me, mitten on my lens (purposefully) so I missed out on some pictures while I was trying to round up a proper cloth to clean up.

Then it was time for dinner and loading the train.  Dinner was a buffet, not too bad, but a buffet.  Zane asked many times about the intentions of the train, “will it go fast like this (as he swivels his arm back to forth guided by his pointed fingers to indicate direction)?  Will it go down really fast?  I don’t want to go fast.”  I assured him that we would be safe but since he has seen the movie Polar Express many times he wasn’t quite sold on the “safe and slow” train idea.  Nonetheless, he boarded and was excited to be on a real train.  The helpers went up and down the isles serving hot chocolate and cookies, leading us in Christmas songs and getting us very excited about Santa. 

It was a fun ride to the north pole where we saw Santa sitting on his sleigh.  Then Santa got on the train with us and greeted the children in all the cars and gave them a bell.  Grandma (GG Williams) was in need of a bell too and didn’t want to let Santa pass her up.

It was about 8:00pm when we got back to the train depot, time for bed.  The next morning, we attempted snow play again.  Zoe wanted to play but didn’t want her thermals, didn’t want a base layer or a long sleeve or leggings or anything that would help keep her warm.  We weren’t sure if struggling to convince her to wear them was worth it… the complaining about the clothing or the ending snow play early-which did we want?  I think Tim was a fan of a short time in the snow!  ;)   Behind the hotel was a little open field where the kids played in the sled for all of about 5 minutes and then, wait for it…  Zoe was too cold!

Thank you Grandma and Paca for a magical Christmas gift!  We loved our experience in Williams, the snow, the train and being with family.