Polar Express

On Friday we picked Ella up early from school and headed to Bryson, North Carolina to ride the Polar Express!  The kids were VERY excited to get on the train, and start the journey.

 

Our car had wonderful “chefs” that were so great with the kids, and so much fun!

 

 

 

 

Who wants hot chocolate and cookies?

Get your tickets ready, here comes the conductor.

Now it’s time to listen to the story.

   

Look who just got on the train!  It’s Santa!

 

Santa gave Ella and Cavner a very special silver bell!

 

 

 

 

What an amazing train ride it was!  Watching Ella and Cavner get excited about everything just filled my heart with so much joy.  I know that they will not be this little for long, so it is memories like these that I will treasure forever.

After we got off of the train we went into the train museum which had thousands of amazing model trains.

But the minute this boy saw this in the corner, that is all he wanted to do.

After our train ride we drove about an hour to Gatlinburg. 

When we checked into the hotel, they gave us warm chocolate chip cookies.  I am not sure that this was the best idea so late, because…

  

this is what happened next!

And then they crashed…or at least pretended to. :)

Disney Day 2- Epcot

The next morning we had some breakfast and then opened our gifts.  This day Cavner got a Mickey book that came with a Mickey iphone.

 

and Ella got a princess book that came with a flashlight.

 

Then we got on the bus to Epcot!

   

They have a room with all of Mickey’s pals, so it was nice to meet all of them in one place.

Ella was SO excited to meet Minnie!  I just love how she is looking at Minnie in this picture.

Then we got a little snack…

Ice Cream bar mustaches!

 

I remember loving the jumping fountains at Epcot when I was little, and Cavner and Ella especially, enjoyed playing in them.  I had brought them different clothes to wear to the princess lunch, so I told them that they could get as wet as they wanted.

Then we got cleaned up and went to dine with the princesses at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.

The absolute FAVORITE thing that Ella got to do this whole trip was this moment.  The minute she spotted Belle she was jumping up and down, and when it was her turn she ran to her and gave her the biggest hug!  Belle is definitely her favorite!

Then princess, after princess, after princess came.  It was definitely hard to eat when every 5 minutes a new one would be at our table, but Ella enjoyed every.single.minute!!

I usually have a hard time trying to get her to look at the camera, but not here.  She looked straight at the camera every single time. 

Cavner also was quite the gentleman when he met the princesses. 

So much so that he got kisses for being so sweet and handsome!

 

Then the little princesses got to parade through the restaurant waving at all of the people dining.

 

This princess lunch was definitely the highlight of my trip.  Seeing the excitement in Ella’s face as she talked with and met each princess literally brought tears to my eyes.  Just seeing her experience this pure joy was an amazing feeling that I will remember forever. 

After the princess lunch we got our Duffy the Bear.  On the back of the bear you can get it “stamped” by all of the countries you go to.  I thought that Ella would enjoy coloring it, and then we would be done, but she really liked trying to find where to get it stamped in each country, so we pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the other countries and getting our stamps. 

Cavner’s favorite thing at Epcot were these drums.  He was in heaven running around and playing all of them. 

 

We ended our day by watching Illuminations! and then the fireworks.  I am not sure what Ella enjoyed more, the program or the toy that Grandma and Grandpa got her.