The Barnes Family Blog

There is actual snow this year! We drove up the day after Christmas and stayed 3 days. I wasn’t feeling well, morning sickness, so I spent most of the time indoors. The girls loved being in the cabin and didn’t go outside in the snow much, probably because Adrian was technically working from home those day and I wasn’t feeling well. So our homebody kids didn’t have anyone pushing them outside. haha

No clue which child this is… maybe Olivia

Claire didn’t make it in. Olivia didn’t make it in, she’s the little fox hat.  Jillian loved the frost on the plants

Our annual gingerbread house party happened today. We had a ton of new faces join our party this year. Both Jillian and Olivia had friends join from school. I learned that 3rd grade parents just drop off, next year I will explain this is not a drop off party, parents need to supervise.

For our final day of our trip we decided to check out a couple extra things before heading out for the 8 hour drive home. Our first stop was Bearizona. It was the most memorable part of our trip! This is a drive through zoo. We were able to see bears, wolves, deer, and other forest animals wandering around our car. After the drive through zoo, we did the walking part. The girls were thrilled to see live goats, since they’ve been playing an ipad game called goat simulator. Olivia was also super excited to see a white fox. 

After our Bearizona trip, we decided to take the detour to the Grand Canyon, since I’ve never seen it. It was amazing! You never really get the full grandeur of the grand canyon from pictures. This was truly an amazing sight! Jillian was terrified and didn’t want to get close to see the edge, but that is ok… I was a bit nervous the whole time thinking about watching the children 🙂

Our ultimate destination for our trip was the Polar Express Train in Williams, Arizona. It was super cute, everyone was in PJs. On the train there was singing, hot cocoa, and cookies. We took a magic portal to the North Pole. Jillian was disappointed  that we didn’t get out at the North Pole, but Santa did join us on the train. He stopped and talked to every child on the train, giving them a silver bell. Claire loved it the most! Jillian and Olivia were a bit sceptical afterwards. Also my camera died and these are the only photos I was able to get.

On our family weekend away we took a detour to stop at Calico Ghost Town. It was the best decision. The girls had a great time wandering around the small town. We took a small train ride, walked into the mine, went in the crooked house, and panned for gold.