A ride on The Polar Express

On Monday we took a trip up to Hood River to take a ride on The Polar Express. The ride up was a little sketchy, but we made it safely (thanks for driving, Poppy). It was super cold that day, but we all had a great time. They tried to make it as much like the movie as possible and that was really fun for the kids. We had hot chocolate, sang Christmas carols, and got a visit from Santa and his elves. On the drive home we asked the kids what their favorite part was...Katie's was the singing carols, Emma's was the hot chocolate, and Aiden said he "loves the choo choo train train"! We were all curious how Aiden would react to sitting on Santa's lap, and he LOVED him. From the moment he walked into our train car Aiden kept waving and saying, "hello santa caus". When it was his turn to sit on his lap he hoped right on. They had a great conversation...this is how it went...
Santa: "Hi there, what is your name little boy"
Aiden: "I Aiden"
Santa: "Have you been a good boy this year?"
Aiden: "Yah"
Santa: "What do you want for Christmas"
Aiden: "Motocycle" (of course I intrepreted this as tricycle and told that to Santa)
Santa: "Do you want a red one"
Aiden: "No...blue"
It was so stinkin' cute to watch my little guy sitting on Santa's lap having a full conversation with him. I guess because I am with him all day sometimes I don't realize how much he is growing up. It is moments like these that the realization smacks me...and yes, I totally teared up while he was talking with Santa. He is such a big boy and so amazing! Today he looked at me and said, "Hey mommy...Happy Holidays"!!! He cracks me up! Anyway, The Polar Express was a great experience and Aiden brings up seeing Santa about once every hour!

Waiting to board the trian

Aiden looking out the window...very serious

The conductor came around and punched the tickets like they do in the movie. He punches really fast and lets the pieces fall on the kids...of course he doesn't actually spell anything out, but it was still neat!

Aiden peeking through the holes in his ticket

The kids holding the bells they got from Santa