The Christmas Train...Choo Choo!

Jared was given tickets for our family to the Christmas Train as a Christmas gift. The Christmas Train is at Dry Gulch USA near Adair, OK put on by Church On The Move out of Tulsa. The Christmas Train is an old-fashioned steam train, as you ride the train you are going past different artwork and actual live scenes depicting the creation all the way to the Resurrection of Jesus. There were also pony rides, wagon rides, gift shops, Santa Clause, a puppet show and more. If interested check out their website www.christmastrain.com.

We had tickets originally for Thursday the 16th of December. We got the girls all bundled and loaded into the car and start our hour long (maybe a little longer) drive to ride the Christmas Train. Claire was super excited about the choo choo! It was about 35 degrees when we arrived and we were starving so we went to the Stew and Chili house to eat and warm up. The stew and chili were amazing...Claire enjoyed the chili so much she ate about 1/2 to 3/4 of the bowl. She has always been a good eater but we thought wow this child is hungry tonight. Once we finished we got in line for the train. We arrived in line at a good time, not many were there yet and it didn't look like we would have a long wait. While in line Claire started acting like she didn't feel good. Jared was comforting her and then all of the sudden she got sick everywhere! Jared and Claire were covered along with the sidewalk. (Not sure we could ever eat chili again!) Jared and I were like "What do we do?" I had brought a blanket so Jared started cleaning up where we were standing the best he could while I tried to keep Claire from touching anything or anyone. We hadn't been in line that long but already we were trapped by people behind us waiting. Once we cleaned up as much as we could we had to excuse ourselves under the ropes and find the nearest bathroom. We ended up leaving Dry Gulch and the Christmas Train without a train ride. Jared thought he would try and email the Christmas Train organization and tell them our story. We were there all of about 45 minutes, no train ride, and an hour long drive back with a sick kiddo. He was thinking maybe they would discount us some tickets for next year or something. He must of made it sound pretty pathetic because they called and gave us new tickets for Tuesday the 21st!!! They even asked if Claire was feeling better.

So fast forward to last night. We ate dinner before we left, no chili this time!!!! The best part was that it was 10 degrees warmer and barely any wind. We arrived and went straight to the train line. We only had a ten minute wait and as we passed the spot where Claire got sick we laughed and were secretly crossing our fingers that no one was going to get sick again. Claire had a good time on the train and the message was good. Claire loved it when they blew the whistle. We also attended the puppet show at Sawdust Theatre. It was a reading of The Night Before Christmas. It was so cute and so funny. Claire got a kick out of the monkey puppet and would yell monkey every time it came out. She would laugh and dance and seemed very entertained. We visited other areas of the place also but I think these were Claire's favorites. Quinn was enjoying the ride, she is a people watcher and had plenty of people to watch. It was worth the 4 hours total driving, the dry cleaning bill for Jared's coat, and the cold weather. We had a good time and are very grateful that The Christmas Train was gracious enough to give us a second set of tickets.

Conversation with Claire on the way home.
"Claire, did you have a good time?
"I do"
"Did you like the puppets?"
"PUPPETS!!!"
"Did you like the train?"
"I do...Train...CHOO CHOO!!!"

Picture of Claire the first attempt, not feeling good.
The puppet show!

They were enthralled.

In line for the train.

In the train depot, we have our boarding passes.

On the train looking out the window.

In front of the steam train

These two got in our picture without us knowing. :) Awesome!