Polar express

The spark.  The joy.  The magic.  The smiles..

All worth it.  

Lets back up to Christmas 2013.  Paxton was introduced to movie  The Polar Express and it was an instant hint.  It helped too that Pammie and Opa have a polar express train that circles the base of their Christmas tree which made it really come alive.  From that point forward Paxton became obsessed with "The north pole" as he called it.  Wanted to watch it all the time, any sliver of paper or "ticket like" piece of paper became north pole tickets. we role played we drove sleds, we rode on imaginary trains, we would scream "North Pole Train!" every time we saw a real train.  He was just obsessed with it.  

We knew this year we wanted to take him on the "real" Polar Express Train (you know the one :)) and so we bought our tickets early knowing how quickly they sell out.  It was the Monday before Christmas and we had been talking about going to the North Pole for weeks.  Pax woke up that morning and I knew instantly he was sick.  After a doctor visit and a TRAUMATIC strep test (who knew sticking a long q tip in your mouth was the worse thing in the world!) we learned he had strep throat.  

So we are just about the best parents in the world because we drugged him up with tylenol and lots of fluids and we headed to Palestine, He was getting on that train!  

My parents and our family met up at the train station and when we arrived it was still light outside,  The nerd in me had kinda wanted it to be all dark and winter like with snow falling and that glorious music playing when he saw the train (like the movie :))  But while it wasn't exactly like that - it was pretty darn close!! 

We got there and had a quick picnic dinner (Thanks, Pammie!) and waited in a big tent for our train to arrive! Don't forget about the smoke jumpers - those were also an obsession around this time.  These are from the movie Planes: Fire and Rescue.  They did have a gift shop which we blew up.  I am such a sucker for momentos.  Matthew says I will be a hoarder one day because of it :)  We bought him a REAL ROBE like the movie.  His size and everything... I just KNEW he would love to wear it like the little boy.  Nope.  Would not put it on  - I almost did :)

Notice he brought his bell :)

These two - they love eachother so much 

Another reason I am glad we arrived in daytime.  There were so many awesome things to look at.  Paxton loves trains in general so he loved looking at the all the trains there, seeing the smoke, seeing the rails... everything.  Had we arrived in the dark he would have missed all of it and I wouldn't have been able to get these pictures :) 

We all wore our jammies 

My parents are so fun and such good sports!

Nervous little boy smile.  He was so excited but this train was gigantic and loud.  He was a little nervous and he definitely made sure we were all with him.  He was not getting on that train and going to the North Pole without us! 

Chocolate Chip cookies - Brinlee says "Thank you!"