The Holiday Express!

Saturday we braved the rain and the wind to go for a ride on the Holiday Express! Unfortunately, the weather couldn't have been much worse...it was extremely cold, windy and pouring down rain! I was so happy when we got to Oaks Park and saw that they had a huge tent for us while we waited in line for our turn on the train.

After being disappointed with the Polar Express last year, I had absolutely no expectations for this train. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how nice the train was, as well as how nicely they had decorated it for Christmas. Even though I preferred the Holiday Express train (not only was it a nicer train, but it was closer & cheaper), there were a few things that I really enjoyed about the Polar Express: we had hot chocolate & cookies, heard a story (The Polar Express), visited the North Pole, and sang Christmas Carols. Of course, that was the never ending train ride (over 2 hours) and this train ride was only 40 minutes. Unfortunately, it was a very long 40 minutes for us...Sienna was a complete nightmare! All she wanted to do was run around the train...if we tried to hold her, she started screaming! UGH!

Chris tried to get a picture of the kids and me while we were waiting inside of the nice dry, tent. Of course, neither of the kids would look at the camera!
Then I tried to get a picture of Chris and the kids, but that turned out even worse. Luckily for us there was a nice man next to us that offered to take our family picture! The kids still wouldn't smile, but at least they were interested enough in the strange man to actually look at the camera!

Every train car had a different layout so we weren't sure which chairs to grab as we walked from car to car. We ended up in the last train car that was nice and spacious, but the chairs weren't exactly set up so you could see out the windows. Of course, the kids didn't mind!

The view from our window as we started our train ride:

Brayden enjoyed looking out the window for most of the 40 minute ride.

Sienna was interested in looking out the window...for about the first 10 minutes!

We even had a visit from Santa Claus! This was by far the biggest Santa that I have ever seen...he was a giant! Some kids sat on his lap, but we decided it wasn't worth getting the kids all worked up...if Sienna was scared to sit on her Grandpa Santa's lap (Grandpa Boley), there was no way she'd sit on this Santa's lap!

Brayden had fun dancing in his chair!

Once Sienna got all crazy, the only way she'd sit still was if she was sitting on Chris' lap...with Brayden! The moment Brayden wanted back in his own chair, she wanted down to run free around the train.

After loading the kids up in the car, I braved the pouring down rain so I could have at least one picture of the train that we rode on. The picture didn't turn out great, but it's better than nothing!