Brendan and Santa at
Bentleyville Festival of Lights :D
My poor tuckered out boy before heading out to ride the Polar Express.
So excited to FINALLY be riding the Polar Express!
Waiting to hear the book "The Polar Express" read at the North Pole.
Brendan excited that Santa noticed his
jammies with Santa's picture on it!
This past weekend we packed up (a day early due to the impending weather) and headed up to Duluth to start a new Christmas Tradition with Brendan. The North Shore Scenic Railroad does a Polar Express train excursion and we decided that our train loving boy would love to go on it. We love to visit Duluth anyways, any excuse to go up and visit is totally worth it! We arrived on Friday evening and got some dinner at Pizza Luce. LOVE PL!!! Then we decided to find
Fitger's Inn and ride the train to
Bentleyville. Boy was B excited! It was a nice quick trip down to
Bayfront Park and we walked through the beautiful light display to find Santa Clause. B got to meet him and then it was time to head back to catch the last train of the night back to
Fitgers. We are so glad that we decided to do
Bentleyville the first night. B got sick early Saturday morning (some kind of quick stomach bug) and we would have missed out on going to
Bentleyville if we had waited to do it Saturday night.
Saturday we pretty much laid low until about 11:30 (B had been able to keep some food down since about 9 a.m.) when we made a quick run to Miller Hill Mall and Pawn America for some Christmas Shopping. We made it back to the room and got in some naps, although B did not get a long enough one. We started to wake him up around 4:00 p.m. for our 5:00 trip on the Polar Express. He was not ready to be awake yet and was a bear to get ready, but we made it with plenty of time to spare. The hardest part of the evening was waiting outside by the waterfront for the train to show up. The winding was harsh and it was pretty chilly. He cried the whole 5 minutes we were out there until he saw the train approaching. He cheered along with the other kids who were also waiting to ride the train and was a happy, warm camper when we were able to board. The Polar Express was a lot of fun...they played songs from the movie and did a sing along of a few Christmas songs. When we made it to the North Pole (The Museum Depot), we filed in and got to see a set up of some model trains that they had set up. Then they led us into the museum where they had a magical reading of the book set up for us. There were actors who read/acted out the story and they even used a few of the trains on view at the museum for some of the parts! When Santa arrived during the story, Brendan was ready to jump out of his seat and run after him. :D After the story was over, each child was given a "sleigh bell" necklace and had a chance to visit with Santa. We did a little shopping and viewing of the model trains and then hopped back on the Polar Express to go home.
We spent the rest of the evening having dinner and soaking in the whirlpool tub in our room, which Brendan used 5 or 6 times during our stay!
We had a wonderful time on our relaxing family weekend and cannot wait to do it again next year!
This was how Brendan wanted to "dress up" for Christmas Eve :D
My mom's side of the family all get together for Christmas Eve.
Brendan's new Misty Island Trackmaster set that Santa Claus brought him :D
Family picture before present opening at the Lindberg household :D
