Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Ridin’ the North Pole Express Vintage Railroad

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Ever since I first heard about the “Polar Express Train” out of Grapevine, TX (the Christmas Capitol of Texas)…I dreamed about the day I could take my own children. This was waaaay before I was even pregnant!

 

I love love LOOOOOOVE the Polar Express and the quads have fallen in LOVE with the movie as well. We watch it at least once every other day (if not every day!)…so I knew they would get a huge kick out of this amazing experience.

 

 

 

Here is a little bit about it~

The children dress up in their warm pajamas… (S, B, A, E)

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…and take a train ride on a vintage locomotive choo choo.  (Joe and Ethan)

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Santa even makes a visit while onboard. 232323232fp63267_nu=3254_759_;88_WSNRCG=356_4;843932;nu0mrj

 

 

We sing songs and dance…the kids even receive a free ornament gift.IMG_1049

 

It was SOOOOOO awesome!

Here are pics from OUR 1st adventure on the magical North Pole Express:

Leaving our house in our jammies! (S, B, A, E)

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Waiting for our train at the Christmas park!

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In line for the Christmas show with Papa and Granna who came along for the ride…literally! (Ben, Ethan, Andrew, Savannah)

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Chatting with one of Santa’s helpers

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Waiting for the show to start…(A, S, E, B)

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(Papa and Drew)

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Can you find 3 of the 4 quads? (Ben is not big on public singing)

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Steeces-in- motion!

North Pole Express from suz steece on Vimeo.

 

“TICKETS, PLEASE!”

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“ALL ABOAAAAAARD!” (Ben & Ethan climbing aboard)

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Welcome to the North Pole Express! This was our jolly ‘ole conductor. (A, B, S, E)

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Papa and Granna~ looking quite festive!

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Little Miss Priss cannot contain her excitement!

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The wonder…(Ethan)

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the awe…(Ben)

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Such a blast getting to experience this with the kids!..especially at this age where Christmas is such an exciting time!

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Our train ride was PERFECT! We were scheduled for 4:30pm. Just enough light to be able to see outside as we left the station…

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A gorgeous sunset…(notice Ethan sneaking in?)

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and sparkling Christmas lights outside as we returned. (Ethan)

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Oh yes---and we had a very special guest on  board! “Look who’s coming, Savi!!!”

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Our kids have NEVER met Santa…sad, right? Never done the Santa’s lap pics. (for my obsessive fear of germs with preemies). So we weren’t quite sure how they would react…

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but they were mesmerized and greeted him with a friendly “Hello, Santa!”

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“Daddy, daddy! I told Santa that I wanted a baby sister for Christmas!” (Sorry Sav, a baby-DOLL will have to suffice…that train has “left the station” if you know what I mean…heh heh)

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Smiles all around…(me and Drew)

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…don’t think these grins could be any bigger!

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We returned to the beautiful Christmas lights at the train station (and the COOOOOOOLD winter’s night) B, A, E, S

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Next: we bundled up, enjoyed making some ornament crafts, ate our weight in funnel cake, had some hot cocoa (of course!), and jumped in the bounce house until we couldn’t feel our feet.

 

The kids wanted a picture in front of one of the trains before we left. (S, B, E, A)

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Seriously, one of the best nights as a family that we’ve ever had!

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Hope your holiday season has been nothing short of magical so far! And if you live in Texas---you should DEFINITELY make your own family memories at the North Pole Express! Worth every penny.

 

Merry Christmas!

suz signature

18 comments:

The Titsworth Family said...

That looks so cool! We actually read the Polar Express to our almost 4year old last night for the 1st time. I think we have a Polar Express train about 2 hours away from us so we will have to check it out. Love the quads pajamas!

Tabaitha said...

We just moved back to Texas and live in Ft Worth and we have tickets to go next weekend. To say my kids are obsessed with Polar Express is an understatement. Your little one's looked precious.

Mercedes said...

Where in the world did you get those awesome Lightening McQueen slippers?

Lindsay said...

I love that you guys did that! We live in the area, and I have been thinking about taking my son, who is 2.5.... Might be a year too early though. We'll have to look into it more. The quads are adorable in their jammies!

Jennifer said...

I have heard about this and it makes me want to drive up to Dallas. I truly wish Houston had something like this!

Boston said...

Don't forget to read the book!! It's a classic!

Gen McNulty said...

What a freaking blast!!! Looks like you ALL had so much fun. Love those TX parents of yours too.

And ummmmmmmmmmm Sooooz... your looking EXTRA smoking hot lately. Yep, yep, yep!!

I love you!
xoxo
Gen

Charity Donovan said...

How stinkin' CUTE! A "babysitter"...killin' me! LOVE HER! To the fact that Joe has on short sleeves...BOO HISS!!!! We've been having to TOTALLY wrap up to even run to the mailbox for a month now! So not fair! Love you!

Marty Rhea Hill said...

I love that Sav asked for a baby sister. You comments following made me laugh out loud. Love all the pics Suz.
Marty

Alissa said...

Wow, that looks like it was SO much fun! Makes me want to move to Texas (your weather also makes me want to move to Texas...from snowy Montreal!) The kiddos look so adorable in their jammies.

QuatroMama said...

This is soooo stinkin' adorable! My boys would EAT THIS UP! Unfortunately, it costs a small fortune in our town to do the Polar Express adventure.
The pics are awesome - what a great memory! (PS Your hair looks gorg!)

Kalle said...

What an awesome Christmas attraction. Looks like a great family fun night was had by all.

{ E } said...

That's just so cool!
I wonder why you guys didn't put pjs on as well?

Lauren said...

This was the BEST! Too cute for words. They actually have this in Essex, CT which is the closest to us, but it starts at 7pm which is WAY too late for a 15 month old. Thanks for sharing your family moments!

Me said...

Hi, I started following your blog a couple years back and was and still am amazed at everything you do and how super cute your kiddos are.

After I hit play on your video the music came on and my son, who had been sitting in his walker staring out the front door came zooming over to check it out, the rattle he had been playing with hung from his mouth and his eyes were wider than I've ever seen, if only I had grabbed my phone in time to take a pictures, it was seriously hilarious.
Thanks for making me day!

Nanny Debbie said...

That sounds AMAZING !!!! I wonder if they do anything like that in England ?

Unknown said...

awesome!!! we have something just like this not far from us but its super expensive ($70/adults, $50/kids!!!) but I'd really like to do it at least once with our kids. Both of my boys LOVE trains and the train that actually runs it is THE train that the Polar Express was modeled off of (the author is from Michigan, not far from our town). I've heard its incredible and I know my kids would love it. Hopefully next year when our youngest is older and will tolerate the long train ride better :-)

Katie said...

So glad Y'all had so much fun!! I've been dyin to take my kiddos , now we may just have to! ;)

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