Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday was Ashley's birthday so to celebrate we decided that we would make it a whole day of family fun. We went to Grapvine to ride the North Pole Express train. The girls love trains and we so excited to get to ride one. This particular steam train was built in like 1896 and most of the parts are all original. Which means it is well over 100. The departure portion of our ride went well with lots of songs. The return part of our ride was going well with a visit up and down the aisle by Santa Claus or Ho! Ho! as Grace calls him. Then all of the sudden there was this loud boom and you could see all this smoke come off of the train. This made the train stop. After sitting for about 20 minutes they told us that we blew a piston and that they were sending a diesel train to come pull us back to the station. After another 40 minutes and lots of available options given to us for our return: put us on another train, pull us with the diesel that they just brought or push us with the front of the train that is now the caboose they finally got us back to the train depot. We stayed on the original train and they pushed us back. Good thing that they had lots of snacks on the train to keep all the kids quiet for a while.



After our exciting train ride we went over to the Gaylord Hotel to look at the lights and displays. We originally also wanted to see ICE but it was just too cold for the girls. Check out the ingredients for this gingerbread house and notice that the list doesn't give the candy count. If you look closely at the pictures you can see where people have picked off pieces of the candy. Did they eat them? That is gross!


Then we went to a really late lunch at Outback and home to have cake with Grammy and PaPaw. Grace and Ava made daddy his birthday cake.

I got the cutest picture of the girls with Santa at the Gaylord. I didn't think that Ava would get close but the way that they approach all of the kids was so sweet and gentle that there wasn't one kid that I saw cry. There were a few odd faces but no screaming and crying. My scanner is having technical difficulties but once it's fixed I will scan and upload the picture with Santa.
Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you!