The Santa Train

This Christmas season, we took a special trip down to Canon City (pronounced "Canyon" - the 'n' is supposed to have a tilde on top) to ride the Santa Train aboard the Royal Gorge Route.  This is a special train that goes all the way from Colorado to the North Pole, where Santa jumps on board to visit with the children!  Then we head back and it all takes less than 3 hours - amazing!

After boarding the train and finding our seats, the first order of business was to write our letters to Santa so we could give them to him once we arrived at the North Pole.  Here is Mason helping Maddox write his letter.

 The train conductor came around and punched our tickets while we ate dinner...

While we travelled, they served us hot chocolate and cookies.

Before long (...a lot sooner than you'd think it would take to travel all the way to the North Pole), we arrived and Santa came on board!

Santa visited with each of the children.  Here he is reading the boys' letters.  He tucked them safely into his pocket and promised the kids that the elves would get busy on them right away.

Then he gave each of the kids a very nice bell!

Before moving on to the next train car, Santa posed for a picture with the boys.

Then we were entertained by this guy...

The elf that was assigned to our car was especially friendly.  I think her name was "Starlight," or something like that.  (Her sister was in the next car and her name was "Spotlight."  We had fun making up names for the rest of her siblings - she had a lot.  We decided she needed a brother named "Bud.").  Anyway, Starlight came around and after jingling the kids' bells, she was able to tell them which reindeer they came from.

Even big kids can have fun on the Santa Train!

We think Starlight was especially drawn to our table of handsome boys, as she insisted on giving each of them a kiss before we departed... whether they wanted one or not!  (which, as you can tell by the photos, I think they would've passed if given the chance.  Except, maybe, for Mason!)

As we were departing, Santa asked Maddox to pose with him for one more photo.

Happy times!!