Anderson 365: Winter Vacation Part 1

This past weekend Toby, the kids, & I went on a little family vaca to T-town. Tatum & Cross were super excited. For kids, just staying in a hotel (with an indoor pool) is exciting enough, but we had some great fun planned. Our first night was the Christmas Train at Dry Gulch in Adair, OK.

For those of you who don't know Toby & maybe even those of you who do, he's a very organized person, at least when it comes to planning stuff. I don't think I have been on a trip with him that we haven't had a manilla file folder containing printed pages with tickets, hotel confirmation #s, maps to everything we have planned & some things we might want to do, & any other type of information we might need. Anyway, all that said he has our trips well mapped out including when we need to leave for whatever it is we are going to be doing. This is no different on Friday night when we are headed to Dry Gulch, which is about an hour away from Tulsa. Of course, not being from Tulsa (not as easy to get around in as OKC) we aren't aware of the severity of their rush hour traffic nor do we know the extent of their construction. Needless to say this was a bit of a set back in Toby's time table. We manage to get through all that stuff & from the back seat we hear this massive belch, one that you know is going to be accompanied by previously eaten stuff. Checking it out, I realize that Cross decided to swallow his gummy snacks whole which then caused him to choke & well no need to rehash the next thing. Ok, so now we have to stop, clean that up, clean Cross up & change him. Now realize that I don't carry a diaper bag with me prepared for these events because he's potty trained & hasn't had any accidents. Thinking to myself what am I going to do, I notice a Gap?, a Target?, a Walmart?, no the only store around is a Dollar General. Nothing against that store, but they don't really focus on a clothing. Well you gotta make the best of it & that's what I did (you'll see what I had to put together in the pics).

So, now about The Christmas Train. It's a great event that I highly recommend. Church on the Move has built a campground/retreat center designed to look like an old western town. Everyone that was working was wearing costumes that fit that era. The train is a replica of an old locamotive pulling 4 or 5 passenger cars. The actual train ride is about 15 minutes long, but in that time they do a wonderful job of sharing the Christmas story starting with why Jesus had to come into the world all the way to Jesus's resurrection.( Cross was really impressed with the fact that they had real sheep & real shepherds.) After the ride, you go into an auditorium where you see a video of their pastor sharing his testimony & giving the opportunity to accept Jesus as your Savior. It was a great presentation. There are a lot of other things to do while you're there like visit Santa, a puppet show, a cowboy music show, & cute little gift shops to visit.