ALL ABOARD! Merry Christmas from the train!

-
Christmas took us on one of our greatest family adventures of 2009! The train from Flagstaff, AZ to Spokane, WA! We drove to Flagstaff in time to say only a very quick hello my cousin Emily and her husband Jeremy (baby Jack was already asleep) before heading to the train station to board the train. The train left the station just after 10PM, so it was on board and to bed! We woke up for an early breakfast in the dining car before arriving in Los Angeles. After just a short stop in Los Angeles we boarded the Coast Starlight train for the longest part of the trip. The scenery was beautiful. for a portion of the ride the Ocean was just outside our window! On Christmas Eve we set our stockings out and fell asleep watching Christmas movies together. Christmas morning we woke up to a WHITE CHRISTMAS! Before we had left Jacy wrote a letter to Santa Clause giving him our train schedule so that he would know exactly where to find us...and it worked! The next morning, while walking through the Parlour car on our way to the dining car for breakfast we saw our stockings and all the fun things that Santa had brought to us! The kids were so excited! They had new games, toys, and craft activities to keep them busy for the rest of the trip! We arrived in Portland around 3:30 on Christmas afternoon and then boarded our last train for Spokane. We arrived in Spokane just before midnight. It was such a wonderful trip and a great way to spend Christmas. We were together enjoying each others company and enjoying some of the most beautify scenery in the country! This may become a regular Christmas tradition for us! We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Comments

  1. blessed3:03 PM

    We love it! Love Jacy's poses too! She reminds me of Faith! What a neat treat to be on a train through the snow and get stockings filled... we might have to try that sometime:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jon and Rach6:42 PM

    Looks so fun! We sure missed you guys Christmas! I am glad you had fun though!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Native Drums

-
Image
For the past 6 weeks Jayne's class (all the 4th and 5th graders) at school have been working with a resident artist learning about the  Tlingit (KLING kit), the Haida (HIGH duh) and the Tsimshian (SIM she ann) native tribes of Southeast Alaska. They have learned how to introduce themselves in the native tongue. They have learned about the art and form styles used in totems and the meanings behind the symbols. They even had the opportunity to make a deer skin drum (Goo-jow), including soaking the deer skin and stretching it over the wood drum frame and letting it set until it hardened. Once it was completely dry they got to draw their chosen native symbol on the drum and the paint it. They look SO COOL! They even made their own drum stick using a stick, fabric, buck leather, and deer tendon, which was used as the string to tie it all together. This past week the students performed for the rest of the school, singing a song/chant in the native tongue. It is a welcome message...
Read more

Whale Watching

-
Image
This weekend was BEAUTIFUL weather!!!  We have all been feeling a little under the weather, but we have made sure to get outside a little each day.  On Saturday we were fortunate enough to be downtown by the cruise ships docks and caught a few glimpses of a humpback whale!  When they bubble feed you can see a ring of bubble start to surface on the water and then they come straight up the center with open mouths to feed.  It is so cool to see them!  They are really big!  Sunday afternoon was a nice drive to all the great spots that we love to view the ocean from.  It was a gorgeous sunset!  Someday I still can't believe that we live here!!!       
Read more