Trains and Lights and Fun, Oh My!

Continuing our tradition of riding the train to see the lights (2nd year for our little Blanchard fam!), we set out after Sam's nap on Tuesday the 19th, getting to the Front Runner station with just a few minutes to spare.  We quickly settled into our seat (with a table!) and promptly broke out the UNO cards for a quick game.  Sam won.  Then, because watching out the window was so much more fun than playing a card game (even though this is the kids' most favorite card game of all time currently), Gregg found a "road trip bingo" app that he downloaded and which brought 45 minutes of pure enjoyment as we all looked for things like flying birds, "earth movers", and do not litter signs (never saw one of those).  

We got off at the North Temple station and walked a couple of blocks to Crown Burgers for dinner.  Delish!  By then, it was just about time for the lights to turn on at Temple Square.  As we approached the Conference Center, we saw more and more trees light up.  We popped into the Church History Museum for a potty break and to see if the nativities were on display like they used to be when I was a little lass.  (They had some on display in the gift shop, but they were also for sale, and not quite the same as I remembered.)  

Back outside we wandered through the very un-crowded and not-too-cold square, admiring all the lights and big nativities.  We stopped in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see the beautiful, giant tree and gawk at the long line of people waiting to buy something from the #lighttheworld vending machine.  (I don't think it was quite as long as days or times, but it was definitely not a short wait.)  We wandered back through Temple Square and out the west side in time to run to catch the Trax Green Line back to North Temple.  

There we had a few minutes wait (filled by riding/racing up and down the escalators and elevator) before the train came to take us back to Ogden.  We couldn't play bingo anymore because it was too dark, but Sam beat us again in two more games of UNO before the kids turned totally loopy climbing on the seats and playing peek-a-boo with Dad.

We were back home by (a little later than usual) bedtime.  I don't know which was the bigger highlight - so many lights or two long train rides.  But I do know we all had a delightful time.

My favorite red tree!