Polar Express

Last Friday we drove up to Williams to ride the Polar Express. We checked into our hotel, changed, grabbed some food and headed to the train station. The high was in the 40's but we were layered and inside most of the time so we were fine. The girls got their pictures taken with Santa and surprisingly Natalee didn't scream.

She looked at him and reached for his beard and other than that she sat there looking at the camera. I was so proud of her. Haylee told Santa she wanted "a baby dolphin pillow pet and some squinkies."

Natalee forgot to tell him she wanted chips and shoes but maybe he'll still bring those for her :)

We went into the next building where Mrs. Claus was and got pictures with her too (let me just add that everytime I wanted a picture of all 3 girls they all looked at the camera for me and the picture turned out perfect! Natalee doesn't smile often for pictures, but all 3 were looking and I was so happy). 

With only a few minutes till boarding they colored a picture for a couple seconds and then looked at the mini polar express train then we headed outside. We got pictures infront of the train and with our "chef" and then we boarded the Polar Express!

Much like the movie, the chefs brought cookies and cocoa and sang and danced the entire time!

As soon as the train left the station, huge snickerdoodle cookies were served.

Next up was hot chocolate.

Then the Polar Express book was read and we arrived at the North Pole. On the way back, Santa gave each child a bell and we sang Christmas songs the whole way back to the station.

The girls had fun, but towards the end Natalee was ready to get off the train.

It was a whopping 20 something degrees when we got off the train so we headed back to the hotel to warm up.

Saturday I woke up with a sore throat. Crappy souvenir to bring home but rather me than my girls for sure. I ended up at Urgent Care Sunday because I was miserable. My fever was 102.5, I had body aches, chills and my throat killed. Diagnosis- Strep. Blah. With steriods and an antibiotic I felt so much better by Tuesday night, thankfully.

Back to Saturday morning....we ate the free breakfast at the hotel, packed our bags and headed out.

We went to Bearizona which was totally awesome!!! It's a drive thru wildlife experience like no other. We saw burros, bison, sheep, wolves and bears.

The bison were awesome because they were running between the cars, jumping around and goofing off. I was a little hesitant that our car was gonna get rammed but we made it our without a scratch. 

All of the animals were super close, a little too close when it comes to the bears. They warned us that if a bear comes towards our car we are to turn and drive away. Well we were behind Dustin when a big black bear came right towards our car and we couldn't move. Luckily he walked right by us but that included him brushing up against our car the whole time. He started sniffing the car behind us so they couldn't move either because he was right infront of them. It was definitely an adventure. The guy told us they have gotten up on cars before.

After the drive thru area, there is a walk through part with a lot of other animals and also a petting zoo. We saw the cutest racoons, baby bears, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and lots of other animals. The girls got to feed a pony too. Best experience!

After we were done looking at animals, we bundled the girls up for some snow time. Haylee & Hannah had fun throwing snowballs at everyone and Natalee was just content eating the snow. If Haylee got hit with a snowball you'd hear her belly laugh, so adorable. Everyone had so much fun. I was the photographer so I was fortunate enough not to get pegged with a snowball :)

We headed home after that and I was miserable the whole way home. Luckily the girls were great and Natalee slept an hour. We made it home safe and sound.

Another wonderful trip!