Our Polar Express Adventure

I'm writing this on the evening of Christmas, so first, I wish you all a Merry Christmas. We arrived at my parents' house in Las Vegas two days ago, but our trip here was not without its adventures.

We had a planned stop on our drive up here. Our destination? Williams, Arizona for the Grand Canyon Railway's Polar Express train ride. http://www.thetrain.com/polar-express-5679.html Since Williams is only an hour or so from the Grand Canyon and Bill and Drew have never seen what Bill affectionately refers to as "A Big Hole in the Ground" we intended to make a stop at the Grand Canyon also. We left our house around 5, planning to have lunch in Williams and then hit the Grand Canyon in the afternoon before the Polar Express that night. As we approached the northern section of what we think of as our desert state, we started to see forests of trees, mountains, and SNOW! At first, I was so excited to see the snow it didn't even occur to me that this snow might wreak havoc on our plans for the day. That excitement didn't last long. We reached Williams around 11, found a good pizza place for lunch, and by the time we walked back out to our car, the snow was falling...heavily. Rather than attempt the roads to the Grand Canyon, we decided to go to a local deer farm.

It was cold enough, snowing hard enough, and windy enough that our visit to the deer farm was a quick one, but fun nonetheless.

Daddy giving Drew some deer feed


Drew posing in front of the reindeer's pen


Drew in a winter wonderland


Drew feeding a little deer




And now feeding a whole bunch of deer


As is obvious from the snow on the animals, us, the ground, and in the air, northern Arizona was right in the middle of a big ol' winter storm. Rather than spend any more time on the road or walking outside on the streets of Williams, we headed to our hotel two hours before check-in. There were no rooms ready so we set up camp in the lounge area of the lobby: Bill with a book, Drew with his DVD player, and me with my computer. A couple hours later we were relaxing in our room. When we headed out to dinner that night the snow was still coming down. After a quick bite at a Route 66 diner we walked around the streets of historic Williams looking at the Christmas light in the snow.

Drew and some penguin inflatables

Drew in front of the Polar Express train

Drew holding his Polar Express book in front of the train

Drew waiting to board the train

On the train with Daddy

Family shot on the train

After boarding the train we were served hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. The Polar Express book was read aloud and we sang Christmas carols.

The lights at "The North Pole" where we picked up Santa and one of his helpers

Drew very excited at the sight of Santa outside

Drew anxiously awaiting his turn with Santa

Drew receiving his silver jingle bell from Santa

My favorite picture from the train...Drew showing off his bell

Mommy & Drew

In retrospect, we should have booked tickets on the earlier train trip (we opted for the 8:00 train instead of 6:30). By the time Santa had visited and we sang a few more Christmas carols our little guy was starting to look VERY sleepy. A few minutes later, he snuggled up to Dad and closed his eyes and barely woke up when we returned to the train station.

He woke up enough to check to make sure he still had his silver bell from Santa though. Drew kept talking about the little boy in the book who had lost his bell because of a hole in his pocket and was very concerned about keeping tabs on his bell. He even slept with the bell that night. Each time he rolled around I heard it jingle and I smiled at the wonderful Christmas memory our family had made.

Marathon Man

Bill had intended to run his fourth marathon at Disney World in January. Unfortunately, the Army developed other plans. He's scheduled to leave in the middle of what was to be our Disney World week for a couple-week long pre-deployment site survey visit to Afghanistan. Obviously, we were disappointe d by this news, but what can you do? We're hoping to reschedule for either Disney World or Disneyland during Bill's shorter pre-deployment block leave period in March. Anyway, since Bill had trained for the last several months to run a marathon he decided to run the Tucson marathon instead. The marathon was a full month ahead of his training schedule for Disney, but he figured he might as well give it a shot.

A few friends of ours were also doing the race. And since a couple of them were doing the half marathon, Drew and I left our hotel in time to watch them finish. This would leave a couple hours between their finish and Bill's projected finish, however, and I was thrilled to see a playground near the finish line (which was at a local elementary school).

Drew entertained himself for quite some time on the playground equipment and was an altogether very patient little boy as we waited for Daddy to finish.

The Tucson race was much smaller than the previous marathons Bill has completed so we had no trouble finding a viewing spot near the finish line. Drew was on the lookout for Daddy and his blue shirt for quite some time, and properly identified EVERY SINGLE blue shirted person we saw, including the women. "There's a blue shirt, but that's not my Daddy." "There's another blue shirt, but that's a girl. That's not my Daddy."

Finally, we saw the right blue-shirted runner approaching the finish.

Bill with his cactus-shaped finisher medal.

Afterward, we had plans to go to a local brewery restaurant with our friends that had done the race too. Bill said that his primary motivation for the last 8 miles of the race was thinking of the very large alcoholic beverage he'd have at the restaurant. He beat Drew to bed that night and was very relieved to not have to go to work the next morning.

That Bill continues to do these races astonishes me, but also makes me very proud of him. Drew can't wait until he can start racing like Daddy. He just got his first lace-up Nike sneakers and thinks that now because he has running shoes like Daddy he is all set. The morning we left to go up to Tucson the day before the race Drew told Daddy he wanted to run the marathon too. Bill said "Sorry honey. It's very far...too far for Drew." To which Drew responded "But I have my new running shoes!"

Pre-Christmas Catchup

It seems like we've been on the go with various Christmas-related activities since the day after Thanksgiving.

That Friday was busy busy busy as Bill negotiated our outside Christmas lights and I unpacked and carefully placed our inside decor. Each box seemed to hold its own memories of Christmases past and my eyes welled a bit as I reminisced over them. The first box of ornaments Bill and I bought at a German Christmas market our first winter in Schweinfurt. My Aunt Marie's collection of Christmas bells. The ornaments from each of Drew's previous Christmases. The musical reindeer my siblings and I received from my mother's parents over 20 years ago. And tons of memories of the house I grew up in, from our stockings, to the Christmas village on the hutch, to the Christmas duck with a hat and scarf that always sat in our downstairs bathroom.

Drew alternated between "helping" (more accurately, supervising) Daddy with the lights and ladder outside and actually helping Mommy unload boxes and totes and carefully placing ornaments on the tree. By the end of the day, our house was sufficiently Christmasified inside and out.

Drew's miniature tree

The following week we bundled up (as much as is ever necessary in southern Arizona) to watch the town's evening Holiday Parade. We packed a blanket and sipped hot cider while we watched bands, fire trucks, and floats adorned with lights in the dark of night.

Drew showing off his new Lightning McQueen winter hat

Poor kiddo was nearly blinded by the light of the flash.

And what Christmas season would be complete without some goodies and crafts? While wandering through Walmart I saw a gingerbread tree kit. Given my limited creative skills, I figured a kit was just what I needed. A few days later Drew and I set up to create our gingerbread masterpiece. Drew carefully placed the cookies on top of each other while I handled the frosting (I'm not that brave yet). Here he is taste-testing one of the "ornaments."

Carefully placing his candy ornaments...

Drew with our finished product


Close up. Not quite as good as the picture on the box, but not a bad first effort. And Drew absolutely loved it, which is all that matters of course.

We also hosted a bead ornament playdate for our mom's group. This was a great craft for Drew because he was able to do nearly all of it "all by myself." He did a great job sticking with the patterns too. And he was very proud of himself as he placed them on empty branches of our tree.

Drew's also been busy with crafts at school. One day I picked him up and saw my son had been transformed into Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

A shot of Bill and me at the battalion commander's Christmas-themed farewell dinner

Drew & Bill took advantage of the rolls of wrapping paper that I finished off this weekend by having a little battle. It was great fun for the two of them until the paper rolls broke in half and Drew was inconsolable over the loss of his new toys.

Drew in front of the tree that now, thanks to all my wrapping, has 26 presents underneath it. Drew takes great joy in counting the presents over and over again...just to be sure he hasn't missed one before.

Since our car is already going to be packed to the brim for our trip to Las Vegas, rather than pack the presents that Grandma Mary and Pop Pop sent, we let Drew open them this morning.

We are feeling ahead of schedule with shopping and wrapping all done and suitcases packed. We are looking forward to the coming two weeks and will be sure to post plenty of pictures.

Pump It Up

Over Thanksgiving weekend we had yet another friend's birthday party to go to. This one was in Tucson at the Pump It Up inflatable play place. I hoped Drew would enjoy it but I had my doubts. He is usually VERY hesitant to get in jumping castles and was not thrilled with either of our previous attempts at a jumping play place. We started out a little rough, with us literally having to drag Drew onto the inflatables. Eventually he was a willing, but still tentative, participant, insisting upon Mommy or Daddy accompanying him.

Daddy and Drew at the bottom of the big slide


Mommy's turn

After a few solo trips down the slide, Drew was ready for action! Here he is hurrying through the obstacle course as Daddy chases behind him (out of the frame).

Drew beat Daddy!

By the end of the party Drew was happily jumping and climbing with all the other kids and his initial tears and screams were long-forgotten.

Daddy carrying Drew away for cake in the party room

Of course, he's still talking about how much fun his friend's party was. Silly boy.