All Aboard the Santa Express

This past weekend Ryan and I surprised our children with a trip to Canyon City to visit Santa Claus and ride the Santa Express Railroad Train. What an amazing experience this was...the kids were so thrilled and excited, it was truly a magical journey! Our adventure began when we arrived at the Santa Fe Depot where we picked up our tickets for the train ride. As we waited for our departure the kids got to play with Thomas trains and look around the gift shop. We boarded the train at 5:30pm, our seats were in the 2nd to the last train car and we enjoyed popcorn, hotdogs and soda while listening to Christmas songs as we anxiously awaited for our departure. At 6:00pm on the dot the train began to roll and the conductor punched our tickets...and thats when the magic began. We were served hot chocolate and sugar cookies as we all sang Christmas Carols...after about 20 minutes into the ride we approached the North Pole, all the kids ran to the side of the train to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus standing outside of his workshop waving and then the elves rounded up all of the children and we all cheered for Santa as he came aboard our train. Santa stopped and greeted every little boy and girl, when he finally reached us he leaned over and hugged both Blake and Brooklyn and then he listened as each of them whispered to him their one special wish... we could over hear Blake tell Santa "I want a Team GeoTrax North Pole Train Set" and then Brooklyn chimmed in "Baby Rupunzel Doll" Santa smiled and promised if they had been good all year that they would get their wish...and then he reached into his bag and handed each of them a bell from his sleigh. The kids were gleaming with joy...it was like a present in itself for Ryan and I to see how magical this was for them. As Santa made his way further down the car and into the one's before ours...the elves had all of the children on our train car standing in the isle so they could all play the Reindeer hokey pokey that was then followed by all the children lining up in their comfy warm pajamas at the front of the train car so they could parade down the isle to the back of our train to listen to the elves read a Christmas Story. Our magical journey was about to end with us heading back to the train station and the kids left feeling filled with hope and joy but as we exited the train the kids got one more chance to sit on Santa's lap tell them what they wanted right before Santa sent them off with a big hug and a candy cane.

If you didn't beleive in the spirit of Christmas this was all one needed to get back into the spirit...I left feeling more inspired than I have in a very long time.

I think it could go without saying but I'll say it anyways...We will definitely be making this a new family tradition for Christmas' to come!!!

Husker Game

November 13th is the day that one of Ryan's wishes came true because he and I got to go to our very first Husker Football Game...Thanks to Jamie and Kelli. Ryan as many of you know is a BIG Husker fan, and has been itching to go to a Husker football game for as long as we have been together. We've never had the opportunity to go for many reasons until this Year. Jamie got free tickets from his sister and he thought of no one other than Ryan to invite to the game!!! Kelli and I being the wives of the die hard fans got to reap the benefits. We had an amazing time at the game, it was more than we ever could have imagined. We had never seen so much pride and love for a college team until we attended a Husker Football game. I mean where else can you see fans standing shoulder to shoulder practically sitting in their neighbors laps...wearing Red clothing from head to toe? People we didn't even know giving us high fives and in some cases hugging us every time we got a touch down or field goal...and I have to say one of the most amazing things to see was after the very first touch down for the Huskers the stadium lets what looks like a million red ballons into the sky...you can't help but feel the goose bumps all over your body. The Huskers won that night which made the experience even more amazing...we were so thankful we wonder if Jamie and Kelli would ever know how much we appreciated being thier guests. Thanks guys!