Twenty-some days, my 100th entry, Turkey day & so much more!

It's been a while since I've updated our blog. Things have been a bit hectic with the holiday & a vacation right afterwards. I can't believe I haven't taken the time to post something in this long! And this entry is my luck number 100!! :)

My Mom came in to town on the 23rd & was able to stay for 10 days. Not nearly long enough! My Dad came in a few days later & stayed for 5 days. My brother Jake, his sweet wife AJ & her daughter Kylee came on the 26th & stayed through the 30th. We had a house full, for sure! My parents stayed at the resort (it's nice to have that inexpensive hook up!) while my Dad was in town, so the house wasn't overflowing but it was definitely a busy week!

We did our first turkey for Thanksgiving this year. I'm a borderline vegetarian & refuse to touch anything that looks like it once had a name, so I've never cooked a turkey. Dave & my Dad filled up a turkey fryer with some oil & went to town. The first one came out more like turkey-jerky (lol) but the second one was pretty good. Luckily we had 2 turkeys thawed & ready to go. One cannot survive on stuffings, twice-baked potatoes, & green fluffy stuff alone! At least not on Thanksgiving.

We stuffed ourselves in the early evening & later had a pie eating contest. My brother Jake, the one who looks like he just stuck his face in a newborn babies diaper, won first place. Tyler took a close second & Kylee came in third. This was our first year with the pie eating contest & it was so much fun I'm sure it'll be a tradition from now on.

After getting my mom, brother & his family off Sunday, we started gathering our things for our Monday morning departure. We were headed for Flagstaff, AZ, one of our favorite places to go. There's a gorgeous resort down that has rooms that are more like a large condo with private hot tubs on the back porches & everything. We were lucky this time & got the condo right next to the park & directly across the street from the activity center.
The activity center had everything from pool tables to computers to mini-golf....you name it & they had it! We got to play mini-golf a few times & the kids really enjoyed that. Jordan's been begging Dave to take him golfing for a while now, so this gave him a small taste of it & he really wants to play more. Tyler enjoyed the free games & spent a lot of time being one of the big kids, playing & making new friends. Jordan was constantly searching for more pinecones while we were there....he's such a little collector!
We had some local cats that kept coming to our back door, which the kids absolutely loved. There were at least 3 of them & they were pretty timid but let Jordan pet them at one point.

Wednesday night we got to drive down to Williams, AZ, & rode the Polar Express. This was the highlight of our trip, for sure! We weren't really thinking about the weather, just that we were all going in our PJ's. When we got there the thermometer read 27 degrees!! Luckily we thought to bring blankets so not everyone froze.

Once we picked up our tickets, we headed down the train depot to the area we would be boarding. Once we were off & running we were served hot chocolate, all the while listening to the song "Hot Chocolate" from the movie, & cookies. Our train's chef held up the story book while a voice from the speakers read The Polar Express to us, as we sipped on our warm cocoa. Hayleah had never had hot chocolate before but quickly decided she loved it. The recognition on her face of was priceless!

Once the book was finished & we sped through the time warp that pushed us closer to the North Pole, the train was rockin' & rollin' & Jordan was looking kind of green. I had to try to distract him from the way he was feeling which worked out nicely because it distracted me too. I was starting to feel a little off myself.

We started seeing the lights of the North Pole & before we knew it we got to see Santa's village, his reindeer, a helper elf & Santa himself! It was all lit up with Christmas lights. Once there, we didn't spend much time checking things out before the train was headed back to Arizona. As we all waved goodbye to Santa & the lights became distant again, our train's chef lead us all in song. My favorite was The 12 Days of Christmas, where the everyone in our train compartment had a part. We were near the front, so we had the 2nd day of Christmas. All the boys & men had to stand up on the 5th day with their hands in a circle over their heads, which was very amusing.

Soon we were surprised to see that Santa had caught up with us & had boarded our train car! He came through the aisles, greeting each child, & gave all the kids their own bell. Last year seeing Santa was a huge ordeal (classic kids screaming picture) so I was a little worried about it this year, but they all did great!

Overall this was a great trip. I would totally do the Polar Express again...it was absolutely worth it.