Previously: 2013, 2015

Taking an Essex Steam Train ride to the North Pole is one of our favorite Christmas traditions. Last year was sort of awful because Finnegan was only 4 months old, it was the 7 pm train, and it was VERY loud. He cried almost the entire time. I don’t think I even took pictures with my real camera – I definitely never blogged it. This year I might have skipped it because E is gone and wrangling four kids on my own at public events is hard, but our boat FRG* decided that to celebrate Kids Halfway Night we would get tickets to the Essex Steam Train North Pole Express. Since it was a group activity (and the FRG subsidized the tickets) it seemed like fate that we should go.

The kids all did GREAT. No crying, no meltdowns, no spilled hot cocoa, (mostly) no torturing each other. There wasn’t even any fighting about who got to sit by the window. We got there right on time and didn’t have to wait long to board. Basically, everything was magical.

Our train car this year was significantly darker than in previous years so my photos are blurry and noisy. I think next year I might – MIGHT – splurge on first class tickets. The fanciest elves host the first class cars, there’s so much more room for dancing, and they have more twinkle lights which would mean better pictures. I’ll also make sure the baby doesn’t rub his grubby fingers all over my lens, leaving some sort of sticky stuff that made all my pictures fuzzy and out of focus.

The gnome jammies and hats are cute enough to make up for a slight lack in technical quality though.

*Quick Navy life lesson: submarines are called boats. What you think of as boats are called ships. An FRG is the family readiness group, which is like a club for all the spouses/families of people on that submarine. They do fundraisers and bake sales and have meetings and they keep us updated on what’s happening with the boat while they’re gone. Halfway Night marks (approximately) the halfway done with deployment date.

I set a goal for myself to take more interesting, photographically complex, technically strong iPhone photos, since those are all things I’m working on in my real photography. I failed. Maybe next week.

Sunday:

Waiting in line is boring. Thank goodness there are benches for lounging.

The Carle <3

Practicing their cheers

Monday:

The ticket cashier printed extra “tickets” for the kids and the ticket puncher punched their “tickets” for them. We love Metro-North.

You’ve seen this one, but my phone died in NY so I didn’t get many more.

Donut the size of his head.

Tuesday:

She’s obsessed with my glasses

Winter is coming. So is the bus.

Modeling her awesome hat and sweater.

Wednesday:

I have no idea what we did on Wednesday. Teeth brushing might have been the only thing.

Their new favorite bedtime book

Thursday:

Not very excited to be outside in the cold

Ignoring me.

Matching Christmas jams (just a little early)

Friday:

We are totally going back to do this again

My new favorite spot for evening pictures

Playground time before it gets too cold

Saturday:

DO I LOOK CUTE MOMMY?

First pony tail requires two pictures.

Bounce house birthday = kids who slept really great

I cannot even believe how fast November is going. I have less than a month until Caroline’s 3rd birthday party (princess themed this year!) and I’ve done almost nothing. THAT IS SO UNLIKE ME. I don’t even have invitations yet. If anyone has this work-life balance thing figured out let me know, because so far I suck at it – and I can do 75% of my work from my couch.

It’s feast or famine this week: some days a took a ton of pictures, some days I took almost none. I think my real problem is I need yoga pants with pockets, so I can keep my phone with me all the time.

Sunday:

I guess this weather is OK.

Super excited to hang out with Daddy

Sunday = Football

Monday:

Sharing

Park to ourselves

Nicely done, kind-of-sketchy-park, you look extremely respectable.

We made it down this aisle without buying ANY candy. It’s a Stop and Shop Miracle!

Tuesday:

Cat as still life

I live with a bunch of weirdos.

Wednesday:

Picture day at school mean cool kid clothes instead of the uniform

I WANNA TAKE THE PICTURE! – tiny selfie addict

Newborn session set up

Thursday:

This is the only picture I have from Thursday. I can’t remember a single thing we did.

Friday:

Rapunzels.

Newborn set up on Friday (in my own room, where it was ONE BILLION DEGREES…but the baby loved it)

Saturday:

I feel bad for the person whose job it is to keep these tables clean.

Birthday cupcakes for the Cabbage Patch Kids!

Watching trains from the train

Passed out on the Metro North. It was a busy day!

This week is going to be bananas (B A N A N A S) so apologies if you’re staring at this post forever and/or for the extremely photo heavy posts I might put up instead. We’ve done a lot of fun stuff over the last few weeks but I’m having a hard time finding actual WORDS to talk about them instead of just letting pictures do it. But a picture is worth a thousand words, so really I’m writing like, 20,00 words a day. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Still catching up on vacation photos, but I promise I’ll be done after this week. While we were visiting my parents, we tried to take Evan on a train ride but somehow kept miscalculating when and where they started (you’d think trains wouldn’t be that hard to predict). Eventually we settled on Burke Lake Park, even though it was literally 104 degrees out. My dad dragged out his canoe and fishing poles, we bought a few bucks worth of worms, and we splurged on train tickets, carousel rides and ice cream. It was like an entire summer wrapped up in a few morning hours.

Caroline is doubtful of this “canoe” thing

GET ME ON THAT BOAT

Despite the giant “DO NOT FEED THE WATER FOWL” signs, I suspect these guys get fed a lot

Evan caught his first fish!

But he wasn’t a big fan of the fish flopping around.

Caroline loved the fish.

Adorable mini-train

Incredibly weird and random fact: The guy driving the train was my boss 12 years ago when I worked at a campground/county park for the summer between freshman and sophomore year of college. I quit in a huff on my second-to-last day because it was 104 degrees and he was mad I wore my t-shirt sleeves rolled up. I did NOT say hello (and he didn’t recognize me).

FINGER GUNS

Longest carousel ride ever – the kids loved it.

And then we all stuffed things in our faces. The end.