Chugga Chugga

Our suburban oasis is about an hour from a rather sweet, old fashioned mountain train that loops around the town of Georgetown.  It's completely non-threatening for littles (and bigs with height issues) and provides a charming and scenic atmosphere.  For the holidays they offer a Santa Train option, including hot chocolate, cookies, the man in red himself, elves and jingle bells for all.  My parents flew in for the week, so we decided to kick off our Christmas festivus with a Santa Train Ride for the entire fam.  Tim and I are more than pathetic about getting our kids up to God's mountains throughout the year, so this provided an excellent excuse.  It was awesome - and so beautiful.  The kids, the parents and the grandparents thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience.  

  

As we boarded, the kids soon learned that Sir Santa was hanging out in our car until we departed. We chose seats right next to the pot bellied man and Dude could hardly contain himself.  He might have peed a little bit.  We all got plenty of QT with Santa.  Dude was able to politely ask for Frosty the Snowman's REAL magic hat and luckily, Santa explained that he couldn't take that away from Frosty.  I mouthed him a silent "thank you."  Squirt refused to acknowledge Santa and we later learned that she did not believe him to be the "real" thing.  Why give attention to a fraud?  I understand.

    

The excursion lasted an hour, which was perfection.  Just enough time to get our fill, but not too much time for the ants in our kids' pants.  

  

The difference between our son NOT realizing I'm taking his picture and then becoming aware.

 Pure joy.

 We convinced Squirt to appease us and take a Santa shot.  It helped that Santa gifted her with a shiny bell first.  

That's the best we could do, sans paying $20 for the "professional" shot they offered.  

If you're a Coloradan, this is a GREAT holiday treat.  Definitely worth the buku bucks spent, but hold out until the Groupon comes out and save yourself 3/4 of the price we paid for being antsy.