One of Elizabeth's and Declan's movies off all time is The Polar Express. They watch this movie year round and beg for it daily. I found out about The Polar Express in Bryson City, by looking around youtube and running into this one guys video, where he surprises his whole family with the trip. It was an awesome watch and something I knew we had to do for our 4! We got Elizabeth out of school early on November 29th, loaded her in the packed up van with the other 3 and headed to go pick up my mom, sister and a family friend to go with us. It was a pretty long trip up and I wondered how it was going to be with two just turned 1 year olds, a 3 year old and a 5 year old. They all pretty much slept the whole way up!
We got to the hotel around midnight. We all were just ready to hop in bed and sleep. The older two were ready to play. Luckily the twins were ready to sleep.
The next morning we woke up and got to officially see our view of the Mountains in the daylight
We had some time to kill until the actual train ride that night in Bryson City, so we decided to go check out some of the back mountain roads. Jeremy's dream come true. He was in heaven driving those scary steep roads.
After checking out the mountains, we headed back to the hotel so we could get the kids in their PJ's. The kids were beyond excited at this point. We arrived at the train station early so we had sometime to look around and get our golden tickets to ride the Polar Express!
Finally inside our semi private car
The kids had a blast dancing and singing with the girls in our car. It was really awesome for them to have one on one attention. They were fully entertained the whole trip!
Even Cullen got in on the action!
The kids favorite part.....HOT CHOCOLATE!!! It was oh so yummy!
Reading along with the Polar Express Book
Arriving at the North Pole
The moment they have all been waiting for
SANTA!
Here he comes!
The look on Declan's face is just priceless!
Getting his bell from Santa
Elizabeth's turn!
One final dance before it's time to leave
For anyone considering riding the Polar Express, I highly recommend it! Truly an unforgettable experience no matter your age. The kids are already asking this year if they get to go back and ride again.
Ah here I am again, running behind. I did the older two kids updates back in July! Yes, I said July and here we are just a couple of weeks away from Cullen and Amelia's 2nd birthday. Time really does fly when you are busy having fun!
Lets see where to start with them.......The last post about them was July 2012 when they did their ISR lessons at 9 months. In that time of course there was learning to walk (Amelia beat Cullen to actual walking at 9.5 months), but Cullen was the first to pull up and cruise, stand up by himself from a sitting position and make us believe he was getting ready to take off (around 7.5- 8 months) and he did about a month after his sister (he was almost 10.5 months). There has been many words spoken, especially in their "twin language", but the older two seem to understand the secret language also. Amelia has always been the one in control, she has always been the aggressive one since they were conceived and we got to watch them monthly on the sonogram screen. Poor Cullen has put up with her abuse for way too long. She is an avid biter and usually only biting Cullen. Here recently, Cullen has let her know, he isn't going to take it anymore and boy has things gotten pretty interesting around this house. I have never seen two small kids fight like these two will at times. They do however have each others back. You let one of the older kids try to mess with one and the other is right there for backup. It truly is a special bond they have with each other. It has been a blessing being able to watch them grow into the tiny people they are becoming.
Here are a few pictures by the amazing Brook Mayo of Brooke Mayo Photographers
8 months old
Almost one year olds at our Halloween fun shoot
and a few from their one year shoot
We had so much fun with their Birthday party! We decided on a costume Halloween Party. Our family theme was Alice in Wonderland. The twins were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Elizabeth was Alice, Declan was The Mad Hatter, Jeremy was the White Rabbit and I, of course was the Queen of Hearts...hahahah!
After their 1st Birthday, they enjoyed their second Christmas, which they were very into! They loved tearing open their gifts to see what was inside. We also took a trip to Bryson City, NC to ride the Polar Express! This trip will have it's own blog post! 2013 has flew by so fast with so many different milestones. Just looking back at these pictures, really doesn't seem like this has been almost a year ago.
Cullen and Amelia took their second year of ISR lessons. This year instead of just floating they learned how to swim float swim. I am totally amazed by these lessons. They are so important, especially for us living around so much water.
Here's a video Jeremy, put together of the kids swimming at their lessons this year (Elizabeth's is from last year)!
It's been a busy summer. Beach trips and lots of outside fun for the kids. Amelia and Cullen both enjoy the beach, but Cullen still hates the feeling of sand on his hands or feet (he is truly my child...lol)! He has gotten better and will venture off of the blanket now as long as he has his shoes on. They have been avid cheerleaders for Elizabeth and Declan at their soccer and t-ball games this summer/fall. We are planning for their 2nd Birthday party now (only 18 days away) and for Halloween. We have another family costume in plans...hopefully I can get it all together and we can pull it off!
