The Santa Train in Boulder City, Nevada

One of the things that has been hard about Troy being in the military is that (many times) during major holidays, it is not possible to be with family. Since we found a church and joined a small group, we have basically spent the holidays with our small group.

Here is Easter.

Here is the 4th of July.

The Christmas season was no different. One of the other ladies sent us a list of things to do for the holidays around Vegas and we decided to check a few things off the list this year and tackle more of the list next year. A lot of the things on the list are free and some of the others aren't, but a lot of the money goes towards a charity or organization in the area that assists with veterans or individuals with disabilities or something.

Here is the list for anyone in Vegas who may be looking for things to do that are kid friendly during the next holiday season:

Our small group got together on a saturday and headed down to Boulder City (about 30-40 minutes from our house which is on the WAY northwest side of town) to ride the Santa Train.

Our boarding time was 11am and the ride was a total of about 45ish minutes. It went out and back (it wasn't a loop, just reversed back the way it came). Santa comes and walks through all the cars with his elves during the ride. The train cars were pretty cool, all old style and looked like something out of a movie.

Here is Avery (looking like a hot mess) holding her ticket:

This is the inside of the train. There were 5 cars. 4 of them looked just like this and one was an "outdoor" car. With the new babies (only about 6 weeks old at the time) we decided on an inside car for sure. Sorry about the picture size...I couldn't figure out how to resize them for some reason.

And here's Avery and the babies on the train, waiting to get going:

And a group shot of Troy, Avery, and me. I'm sad I couldn't resize this because it's hilarious.

And here's the kids from our small group. There are 2 twins boys (can't tell you how nice it's been to have friends with twins since ours have been born), another girl, and Avery. Avery is the youngest, but all the kids seems to get along pretty well despite their age differences.

Santa is on his way back with the elves leading the way and talking to everyone.

And I was SO impressed with Santa. He would sit or crouch down with EVERY single kid and have a 2 minute conversation with them. He was really really sweet and Avery was SO interested in him. She had already talked to Santa that week at the mall, but she didn't seem to care/notice that they may have been a little different. She also remembered to ask him for her pink bicycle. Again.

Overall, totally worth the 5$ per person to ride. There was a museum at the train station and some kids crafts and hot chocolate and popcorn but we had to duck out after the ride to get lunch and get Avery home for a nap before a meltdown happened. I am hoping to tackle more of this list (especially the free stuff) next year.