Back in September, Joel found out about the Polar Express train ride in French Lick from one of his coworkers. I immediately got on the website and the whole thing was nearly sold out. There were only a couple dates left with availability so I promptly booked it.
We also had tickets to the Big Splash Adventure water park in French Lick so we decided to make it an overnight trip.
The week of our trip, we had the kids watch The Polar Express movie - Lily watched it pretty intently but Tyler wasn't too interested. These days, if it's not Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, he doesn't really want any part of it.
We also read the book.
We were prepared and ready to go!
The train ride was at 5:30 on Friday, two hours away in French Lick so we ended up taking some vacation time so we could get on the road after lunch and not have to rush too much. We arrived in plenty of time to check into the hotel, change in to our jammies and get a little something to eat for the kids before heading to the train station.
There was an activity tent set up where the kiddos created letters to Santa. Lily asked for a microphone (as if she needs any help with the volume of her voice), Elsa, and Baby Elsa. Tyler just stamped all over his paper. No intel gathered as to what he wants for Christmas.
They also left a message for Santa on a huge dry erase board. Actually, I think they sabotaged a bunch of other kids' messages to Santa.
There was a Thomas The Train set up and the kids played with that a little. Tyler got one of these sets for his birthday from Meme and Papaw and he loves it!
It was getting close to time to board the train. The kids were getting super excited (and SUPER IMPATIENT). I told Lily she had to try to potty before the train and she completely melted down and threw a fit about that. One of these days, she's gonna trust me when I say it's better to pee pee now than to wait. She'll probably be 21 years old before that happens, but it'll happen.
Then we went to stand in line for the train. That. Was. Torture. If I said it once, I said it 347 times: "Guys, it's not time to get on the train yet." "We have to wait until the conductor says it's time." "We have to wait our turn." "Just a few more minutes." "Please be patient."
Then FINALLY. It was time. We were greeted by Santa's elves. But according to Lily: "They aren't REALLY REAL elves. They are just kids dressed up." Yeah, I kid you not. She called them out.
Then we got all situated and tried to take some pictures. Neither kid really wanted to cooperate on this. Family selfie is a classic. I think I'll blow it up and hang it in our living room. It so accurately paints a portrait of what our lives are like.
The train got rolling and the conductor came by to punch our tickets. He did it like in the movie, sort of, and punched a bazillion holes in the kids' tickets.
Then they came through the train car with hot chocolate and cookies. The kiddos thought that was great. Once again, Lily called out the elves. "Those are the same girls but except now they have on cooker clothes."
After the cookies and hot chocolate, there was a lot of dancing and singing in the aisle. Lily was all about it. As soon as the elves started dancing, she immediately jumped up and wanted to know if she could dance too.
And then we got to the "turn around" point - aka, the North Pole (which was a few sheds decorated with Christmas lights). We saw Santa standing out there, waving. Then we started the trip back. And Santa was not with us. And Lily was acting sooooo disappointed. "Where's Santa? Are we not going to see Santa on this train?" Joel and I were confused because we thought we were going to see Santa on the train. But then a few minutes later, he made his appearance.
And oh my goodness. I don't think it was disappointment we were seeing before from Lily. I think she was anxious about Santa coming on the train and that's why she was asking questions. Because this is what happened when she saw him.
And Tyler wasn't much better. Big tears. Instantly.
So when Santa got to our seats, Joel and I got our picture with him. (Hey, we paid $129 for this ride and by golly we were getting our money's worth!)
The kiddos got their sleigh bells and sat stiff as a board in their seats for another 10 minutes until Santa was off the train. And then they immediately returned to singing and dancing the aisles. It was literally like a light switch event.
After the train ride concluded, we headed off to get dinner for the big people. We went to a local place called 33 Brick Street and had the most amazing hamburger I've had in a very, very long time.
After dinner, the kiddos walked down the side walk hand in hand. Ahh, these are the moments. They stopped in front of a musical Christmas light display for a little oohing, ahhing and dancing.
Then back to the hotel for the night. It was pretty late at this point - almost 9:00 - so we had only a little trouble getting the kids to settle down and go to sleep. But did that late hour mean the kids slept in in the morning? Uh, no. Tyler was up at 5:00. God love him, but we have GOT to figure out how to reset his biological clock for a more acceptable wake up time.
It's a long time from 5:00am to 7:30am when breakfast opens...and a long time from 7:30am to 9:30am when the water park opens. By the time we got to the water park, I think Tyler was ready for a nap.
The kiddos scattered in two different directions (and Joel wasn't with us yet because he was taking our overnight stuff to the car) and I thought I might lose my mind in the first 10 seconds. I didn't have the lay of the land yet and it made me a nervous wreck! But I got it under control, Joel showed back up and we each took a kid.
Tyler lasted about an hour and then he went in to total meltdown mode. He was freezing and tired and that was not a good combination. That water was none too warm. I was expecting it to be a lot warmer or even humid inside and it wasn't at all. I saw lots of blue-lipped kiddos. Joel was cold and kind of over it too so he took Tyler. They dried off and sat on the side while Lily and I continued to play. You had to be 42" to ride the "big slides" and Lily is EXACTLY 42". She was a a real trooper and tried 3 out of the 4 big slides. I was surprise by her adventurous nature. She's not usually like that.
After a couple more hours, Tyler was so tired and hungry he was melting down big time and it was time to go. Lily was so disappointed. I think she could have easily stayed and played another couple hours.
So we headed on back home. Tyler was passed out in the car before ever got out of the parking lot. We got some drive through and tried to wake Tyler up to eat it but he wasn't having it. He took two sips of milk and then promptly passed back out. Lily ate her lunch and swore up and down she wasn't tired. 10 minutes later she was snoring. Both kids slept hard all the way until we pulled in the driveway.
What a fun time!
Then we went to stand in line for the train. That. Was. Torture. If I said it once, I said it 347 times: "Guys, it's not time to get on the train yet." "We have to wait until the conductor says it's time." "We have to wait our turn." "Just a few more minutes." "Please be patient."
Then FINALLY. It was time. We were greeted by Santa's elves. But according to Lily: "They aren't REALLY REAL elves. They are just kids dressed up." Yeah, I kid you not. She called them out.
Then we got all situated and tried to take some pictures. Neither kid really wanted to cooperate on this. Family selfie is a classic. I think I'll blow it up and hang it in our living room. It so accurately paints a portrait of what our lives are like.
The train got rolling and the conductor came by to punch our tickets. He did it like in the movie, sort of, and punched a bazillion holes in the kids' tickets.
Lily was so excited. Look at this face.
Then they came through the train car with hot chocolate and cookies. The kiddos thought that was great. Once again, Lily called out the elves. "Those are the same girls but except now they have on cooker clothes."
After the cookies and hot chocolate, there was a lot of dancing and singing in the aisle. Lily was all about it. As soon as the elves started dancing, she immediately jumped up and wanted to know if she could dance too.
And then we got to the "turn around" point - aka, the North Pole (which was a few sheds decorated with Christmas lights). We saw Santa standing out there, waving. Then we started the trip back. And Santa was not with us. And Lily was acting sooooo disappointed. "Where's Santa? Are we not going to see Santa on this train?" Joel and I were confused because we thought we were going to see Santa on the train. But then a few minutes later, he made his appearance.
And oh my goodness. I don't think it was disappointment we were seeing before from Lily. I think she was anxious about Santa coming on the train and that's why she was asking questions. Because this is what happened when she saw him.
And Tyler wasn't much better. Big tears. Instantly.
So when Santa got to our seats, Joel and I got our picture with him. (Hey, we paid $129 for this ride and by golly we were getting our money's worth!)
The kiddos got their sleigh bells and sat stiff as a board in their seats for another 10 minutes until Santa was off the train. And then they immediately returned to singing and dancing the aisles. It was literally like a light switch event.
After the train ride concluded, we headed off to get dinner for the big people. We went to a local place called 33 Brick Street and had the most amazing hamburger I've had in a very, very long time.
After dinner, the kiddos walked down the side walk hand in hand. Ahh, these are the moments. They stopped in front of a musical Christmas light display for a little oohing, ahhing and dancing.
Then back to the hotel for the night. It was pretty late at this point - almost 9:00 - so we had only a little trouble getting the kids to settle down and go to sleep. But did that late hour mean the kids slept in in the morning? Uh, no. Tyler was up at 5:00. God love him, but we have GOT to figure out how to reset his biological clock for a more acceptable wake up time.
It's a long time from 5:00am to 7:30am when breakfast opens...and a long time from 7:30am to 9:30am when the water park opens. By the time we got to the water park, I think Tyler was ready for a nap.
The kiddos scattered in two different directions (and Joel wasn't with us yet because he was taking our overnight stuff to the car) and I thought I might lose my mind in the first 10 seconds. I didn't have the lay of the land yet and it made me a nervous wreck! But I got it under control, Joel showed back up and we each took a kid.
Tyler lasted about an hour and then he went in to total meltdown mode. He was freezing and tired and that was not a good combination. That water was none too warm. I was expecting it to be a lot warmer or even humid inside and it wasn't at all. I saw lots of blue-lipped kiddos. Joel was cold and kind of over it too so he took Tyler. They dried off and sat on the side while Lily and I continued to play. You had to be 42" to ride the "big slides" and Lily is EXACTLY 42". She was a a real trooper and tried 3 out of the 4 big slides. I was surprise by her adventurous nature. She's not usually like that.
After a couple more hours, Tyler was so tired and hungry he was melting down big time and it was time to go. Lily was so disappointed. I think she could have easily stayed and played another couple hours.
So we headed on back home. Tyler was passed out in the car before ever got out of the parking lot. We got some drive through and tried to wake Tyler up to eat it but he wasn't having it. He took two sips of milk and then promptly passed back out. Lily ate her lunch and swore up and down she wasn't tired. 10 minutes later she was snoring. Both kids slept hard all the way until we pulled in the driveway.
What a fun time!
Back in September, Joel found out about the Polar Express train ... ppolarexpresstrain.blogspot.com
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