Christmas Vacation: Tallahassee, Georgia, and North Carolina

The big day is upon us, I think we are more excited about this than Christmas yesterday.  We are leaving on our trip to Maryland, with a bunch of stops in between.  We packed most the car last night and woke up bright and early to get a start on the day.  The girls knew that we were headed to North Carolina today, but they had NO IDEA that they were going on the Polar Express that evening.  I was the designated driver for this leg of the trip.  Daddy and I decided to trade off driving.  Since we left when it was still dark outside we were hopeful that you ladies would go back to sleep...that did not happen.  We told you that once the sun came up that we would start a movie for you on the new dvd players that Santa brought you for Christmas. We held true to our promise and shortly after 8am we turned on the movies for you.  We had lots of snacks and such in the car so we just had some snacks so we could get a little further on the trip before stopping for lunch.

Our first lunch stop at a Chili's in North Georgia

We were making really good time at this point, but not good enough that we could make a pit stop at the Cabbage Patch Hospital, so maybe next trip we can do that.  We did however, make a fun pit stop at "Goats on the Roof" in Tiger, Georgia.  It is silly place where the goats live on the roof of the buildings.  You can feed them and there are little stores as well.

 mommy and the ladies

 silly daddy and the ladies

 feed me

 Em peddling to feed the hungry goat

 peddle faster em

 waiting on my treat, peddle faster Em

 using the pulley to feed the other goats

 teamwork makes the pulley go faster

 thanks for the treat ladies

 what are you looking at willis?

 can I help you?

 Playing in the train.  Little did they know they were going on a real one in a few hours.

Goats in the Roof was a fun pit stop.  We were about an hour outside of Cherokee, North Carolina where we were staying for the night. So the drive was not that bad.  We got to Cherokee and checked into our hotel.  We had a few hours until we needed to be in Bryson City for the big Polar Express surprise.  We got changed into some warmer clothes and told the girls that we were going to have pizza for dinner and had a surprise for them.

We go to Bryson City and went to the train depot, the girls still had no idea what was going on.  We went inside the train depot to get our tickets and they had The Polar Express playing on the tv's.  Lily said "mommy look, the polar express" and I said oh wow, ladies do you want to go on the polar express and they both smiled so big and said YES!  We gave them their golden tickets and went to the pizza place across the street.

the ladies with their golden tickets!

Dinner was good and we had a little time before we need to get in line to board the train, so we explored the train depot a little.

While we were waiting in line the train came into the station. Everyone was so excited to see the train.

We patiently waited our turn and then it was time to board the train.  It was so exciting.

Being on the train was just like being in the movie.  However, we had a very special job to do on our train ride.  Since we were going on December 26, we had the very special job of taking Santa back to the North Pole.  It was a very big responsibility and we were all excited that we got to do it. When the train started you ladies were given the job to hand out the books that had the songs that we were going to sing.

We sang several songs and then the conductor came by to punch your tickets.  You ladies wondered why he did not punch letters on your ticket like in the movie.

Shortly after the conductor punched your tickets we were told that Santa was coming to visit our train car.  It was so cool for you ladies to talk with Santa and thank him for your presents.  He spent a few minutes talking with you and reminding you to be good so that he can come visit you next year. He also gave you the magical bell.

After Santa came we were almost to the North Pole.  Pulling into the North Pole was pretty amazing and exciting.  It was beautiful.  We stopped to let Santa off and then toured the North Pole.  We saw where Santa and Mrs. Clause lived, where the toy factory was, where the reindeer's lived, where the elves live and frosty's house.

After dropping Santa off at the North Pole the hot chocolate song came on and they handed out hot chocolate.  It was so yummy.

And before we knew it we were back at the train station.  You ladies loved going on the polar express and we are so glad that we were able to do this.  We headed back to our hotel and had a nice sleep.  The next day we were headed to Virginia.  Can't wait to see what adventures were in store for us there.