The Santa Express

We rode the Santa Express this week.  It's normally the Royal Gorge Route Railroad which goes through a very deep gorge cut by the Arkansas river.  Here are the kids trying out Santa's sleigh.

 Here's part of the train

 Matthew in his Santa jammies checks out the train.

All Aboard!

Normally the train only goes at night, but since it was all sold out at night they added some day time runs with Santa.  I really liked going during the day!

 We could see a lot more of the scenery that way!

 Grant enjoyed the ride too, but I think he wished he could crawl around on the floor for most of it.

The Arkansas River alongside us - yes, this river really goes all the way to Arkansas and finally the Mississippi River.  The river was very icy, iced all the way across in some places.  Brrr!

 Here's Matthew enjoying some hot cocoa and cookies.

And we saw Santa at the North Pole.

I hope we didn't ruin the magic of the North Pole by seeing it in the daylight.  :) There was a lot more cactus there than I imagined. 

 The kids thought the little village was neat!

Santa got on board and visited with all the kids.

Anna couldn't think of what she wanted while she was talking to Santa, but she did write him a nice note which only she could decipher. 

Matthew told Santa he wanted a jet transformer.  Matthew also brought a candy cane from home to give Santa.  It was all broken when he finally got to give it to Santa.  It was cute though.

Of course, my photo op with Santa turned out blurry.  :)

Santa gave all the kids a little bell ornament.  Even Grant got to visit with Santa and get an ornament.

 

Santa's village/the north pole again.  :)

 It started snowing while we were out there.  Very exciting!

 

And far above our heads we could see the Royal Gorge Bridge.  We saw this train track and the river from the bridge when we visited the bridge and walked across it during the summer.  The bridge and the bottom of the canyon are FAR AWAY from each other.  It's a deep deep gorge.  Here are some pictures from the top of the gorge.

There was hardly anyone on the train so on the way back we were allowed to go sit in the dome car.  Fancy!

Santa's elves read stories to the kids and they all sang songs.  The kids had a great time!