Tommy's Birthday Trip- A REAL Train Ride!

On Tommy's birthday morning we were at a hotel so he got to eat whatever he wanted.  He picked muffins & waffles.

 Afterward, we went swimming in the pool.  I wish we had a decent indoor pool here in Idaho Falls to go to.  It was nice to get back swimming!

 Vic insisted we eat at his favorite restaurant, Tucanos.  It was super yummy as always.

 And finally, the reason for the trip... The Polar Express ride!!!

 This moment was SOOOO exciting for Tommy to have his ticket punched by a real conductor! 

 We had lots of visitors, songs, jokes to help pass the time. Mrs. Clause brought us her own home made cookies & hot chocolate.  Tommy said this was his favorite part.

 There was so much build up to seeing Santa at the North Pole, but with such a warm December, it seemed a bit cheesy.  I'm sure it's much more magical with snow all over!

 I even googled & found a restaurant in Salt Lake that Tommy could eat inside a train for dinner!

 On our way home we stopped at Temple Square to see the lights.

I've never been there when it was this packed.  It was practically shoulder to shoulder so I feel like we didn't enjoy it as much because we were too busy crowd weaving instead of light viewing.  I still liked it to help talk to our kids about the true meaning of Christmas.  Which reminds me.  On Christmas Eve, first thing I said to Tommy was "Merry Christmas Eve!" and he replied back, "you mean Happy Birthday to Jesus, Mom." Ha, he is so sweet to remember that over presents!

 My favorite part was the big pond with floating lights.  I'd sure love to have a romantic dinner next to something like this!

Tommy's Birthday Trip- Day 1: Ogden

We hated to drive all the way to Heber, UT just for a train ride so we tried to make a fun little Christmas getaway out of it so Tommy had the birthday of his dreams!  On day 1 we went to the Treehouse Museum for kids.  It was really cute & we really enjoyed Ogden's downtown area.

 They really loved teaching each other school.

 This music room makes me want to do something crazy & bright in our toy room, but I'm still undecided!

 Tucker was the cutest court jester!

 I love these flat magnet shapes.  I need to remember to buy that for a present one of these times!

 Ogden has a really cool Christmas Village where they had lights everywhere, 200 cottages lit up in different themes, and Christmas music concerts going on all night.  There was free Santa too, but the line was WAY too long!

 Whitney loved this pink cottage best.

 This bakery one was cute because those figurines in there were moving around.  Tommy's favorite cottage was of course one that had a train going in & out of tunnels.

Tommy's "Jake" Pirate Birthday Party!

Tommy turned 5!  He was pretty spoiled this year.  He got a big party & a trip to Utah to ride a "real" train.  Here he is holding his treat we took to preschool.  It's a rice crispy treat we made look like a cupcake.

 Here is his birthday table.

 A close up of his cake.  I thought this would be so simple, but it was not!!  

He loved it though & that is what matters!!

 Pictures of our decorations:

 "fish & chips" ...toddler version!

 Where the pirate wars took place in our basement, Captain Hook's ship is the black one & the big one, Bucky (Jake's ship), is the big brown one.

 When the kids arrived they painted a parrot like Skully (Jake's pirate).  It was super messy & crazy.  Don't think I'll do that again!

 Here is all of the crazy pirate kids.  Captain Hook appeared & told the kids he stole their treasure & if they wanted it back then they'd have to get through his traps.

 First captain hook threw a cannon ball into their ship & they had to pop it.

 Next, they had to walk the plank.  Tommy played with the plank way more before & after the party than he did at the party.

 Then they had a million balls they tried to throw in Captain Hook's ship to make his ship sink.  This is when all chaos broke out.  I hate chaos, but Tommy was having a ball being super crazy!

 Their last clue was to find the sea tunnel, climb through it, & find their treasure at the end.

 They had a list of things to find so it was all equal & fair.  Thank goodness it was a nice warm day in December!!

 Pirate Whitney's treasure she found

 After the games, we had cake & ice cream.

 Tommy got lots of "Jake & the Neverland Pirate" toys.  I was glad their was no doubles!

He had a blast & is already plotting his next birthday party!