North Pole Explorers

Our trip to the North Pole via Arizona this past weekend was wonderful! The kids had an absolute blast - they loved the actual experience, but more than that, they loved having three straight days with their best friends. They begged to sleep in the same beds, they rode in the same cars together, we threw them into showers together. All besties, all the time. And fun for us adults - loved getting to see Kristen's home town and hear about growing up in the Phoenix area, her parents are super nice, and after the kids went to sleep every night, the four adults had a cocktail and stayed up late goofing off.

We flew into Phoenix on Thursday and stayed overnight there, and then drove to Flagstaff in the morning. There had been storms coming through and though it rained a little on our drive, it wasn't bad at all. The girls were in our car and FREAKED OUT when we hit an altitude where they started to see snow on the ground. We had lunch at Kristen's mom's boyfriend's home in Flagstaff and he's on a golf course, so the kids had a bunch of open space to go out and play in the wet snow. Perfect for making snowmen!

Almost immediately after they finished their creation, the snow started coming down hard. They came in to warm up and marveled over the white stuff falling from the sky.

Our hotel in Flagstaff was nice - definitely overrun by people going to the North Pole, but fun to see everyone in their Christmas jammies and outfits. The North Pole Experience runs buses to the North Pole every fifteen minutes basically all day long. We had a 6:30 bus, which was perfect timing. They make a big deal on the drive out about how you're going into a portal to the North Pole, and when you arrive, the elves start making things fun. They led the kids through a series of rooms with something different to do in each room - make toys, help the elves fill the stuffing machine, going to elf university, having cookies and hot chocolate and then dancing with Mrs. Claus and the elves, writing a letter to Santa. They kept things really moving so the kids didn't have much of a chance to whine or get bored, and the only real waiting was the last ten minutes before we went in to see the man himself. And the nice thing about that was that each family got to be alone with Santa - so it's not like your kid is in line screaming at Santa while other kids are trying to have their moment.

And they each got a teddy bear!

The kids loved it. They're all at such a fun age to still be wowed by all of the magic. Later, the girls said that they were sure it was the real Santa. They also liked that afterwards they got to stay up late playing around and then sleep with their friend instead of their sibling (they sleep like puppies all cuddled together, it is about the cutest thing ever.)

The next day our package also allowed us to have breakfast with Santa at the hotel. This Santa was not as impressive, nor was the buffet breakfast, but hey, it was right there! We drove back to Phoenix, but on the way, detoured through Sedona, which was GORGEOUS.

Here they are holding up the mountain!

We did a little shopping in some of the fancy shops and had a nice lunch. I really wanted to go into a crystal rock shop, because I am a nut, and the girls came with me and were very pleased to look at all the rocks, and meet the resident store cat. Please note, that is my future someday. Taking woo-woo photos of people's auras, hanging out with rocks and cats.

For our evening fun back in Phoenix we went to a local park that decorates all out for the holidays. They have a little train that runs around the perimeter, and lots of lights in the trees, plus a carousel and a model train museum. The line just to buy tickets was well over an hour, but thankfully, there was also a play ground, which the kids LOVED, and truly, letting them just run around saved the day.

Though, after waiting an hour just to buy ride tickets, Adam was very upset when I told him we weren't waiting for additional hours in line to ride the train. I told him we'd ride the carousel instead, and he said that was for babies.

STILL HAD FUN THOUGH.

Sunday we had a relaxing day. The kids slept in a little and then each set of kids watched a movie in bed so their parents could doze (I heard the girls start watching the Greatest Showman, fell asleep during A Million Dreams and woke up during the final number.) We had a leisurely breakfast and hung out with Kristen's dad at his house before we loaded back up on the plane to head home.

It was such a good time. The kids had so much fun and were such funny little travelers. It was awesome to get the best of Arizona, from the snow to the scenery. And now, we're feeling fully in the Christmas spirit and ready to have Santa come to our house.