Picking Oranges

One of the really neat things about living in the Arizona is the ability to grow oranges. Our little tree only produced about 3 dozen this year, but we have been looking forward to them all year. Did you know it takes as long to grow an orange as it does a human baby? 9 months!!! The tree blossoms in March and then the oranges FINALLY turn orange in December. Wow. Well worth the wait though. We had a fun night picking.

Polar Express

This past week we went up to Williams Arizona to ride the Polar Express with our friends the Barnards. We had a BLAST!! The polar express is like Disney Land.... It would be fun for any age, but watching your children witness the magic is 10 times better than the experience alone. We drove up to Williams and ate dinner at the large hotel diner, then dressed in our PJ's to wait for the train to arrive.

Once we boarded the train, we were served hot cocoa and cookies while a reading of the Polar Express Book was heard. After about a 1/2 hour ride the train came to a lit up area that was decorated like the "North Pole". Santa was there and boarded the train. The 1/2 hour ride back to the station was spent singing Christmas carols as Santa visited each train car. When Santa got to our car he gave every child a large silver bell, and told the kids to check for wholes in their robe pockets! It was a fun experience.

After the train ride we went to a room with coloring, toys, a mailbox to the north pole, and Mrs. Clause. The kids had fun, and we were ready to head back to the hotel at 10 PM, but not ready for bed.... We suited up and headed down to the indoor pool for some fun. We finally were all in bed by 12 AM!!

In the morning we went down to the diner again and had a HUGE breakfast, went swimming one more time, then headed home. Hope you enjoy the pics!!