All Aboard the Young Family Thanksgiving-Mas

At our family get together over Labor Day, we all decided that it would be so much fun to take the kids on the Polar Express in Bryson City, NC.  And since we traditionally celebrate with Dad in November, whether it be for his birthday or Thanksgiving, it made a lot of sense to combine all the holidays of the upcoming month with a weekend away. 

 

Papaw Bud was able to join us for the weekend, and it was the funniest thing-- Harper would. not. leave. his. side.  She's only really ever been around him one other time (just a few months ago at Aunt Betsy's), but she was just in love with him.  I'm glad she got to bond with him.

Our families really have everything we could ever ask for.  Our Christmas last year consisted of each making Pinterest boards and buying from each accordingly.  We may have gotten what we wanted, but it was pretty boring.  And Leah got three pairs of the same running shoes.  Haha!  So, we decided to forego gifts with the adults and do a fun (but somewhat expensive) weekend away together.  Enter our Christmas/Thanksgiving/Dad's birthday celebration in the Smoky Mountains. 

As soon as we decided on that plan, I got online to buy the Polar Express tickets since they sell out so early!  Here it was September and all the tickets for the First Class cars were booked for the Friday night and Saturday of our desired weekend in November.  Craziness!  We decided maybe we aren't first class people anyway when our kids are in tow, so we picked the crown class and booked our tickets. 

Dad took on the job of finding us a place to stay, and he did a great job (even if we may have wondered if we were going to die when we were plowing up a giant mountain in the pitch black on the Friday night we arrived.  Eek!)  It had plenty of room and lots of mountain charm. 

On Saturday morning, Leah whipped up her famous "heart attack breakfast casserole" and the kids got to have Christmas morning with Nana and Papaw.  How sweet were they to literally pack an artificial Christmas tree so that it would feel like Christmas on this weekend before Thanksgiving? 

 

They loved their gifts!  And their parents loved them all except for the pop shotguns.  Haha.  We will be hearing those for the rest of the weekend and beyond.  After gifts, we all packed up and went over the Nantahala river for lunch and some exploring. 

After lunch, we went back to the cabin for some late naps to gear up for our big night on the Polar Express.  But, before we could leave for the train, Papaw took the grandkids on a hunt with their new "shotguns."  Nik went out and hid a bobcat, moose, and bear and then they went "hunting" for them.  So cute and thoughtful.  Since it was dusk, it was even enough to scare never-afraid Harper.  Willa had to offer to help Harper since she had already "shot" her bobcat and new that it was just pretend. 

 

As you would guess, the Polar Express was magical.  Before we boarded the train, the kids got pictures with Santa.  It was so magical they even smiled on the first try.

The train tries to follow the movie storyline pretty closely.  The chefs go through the cabin singing "Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot Chocolate!" and read the Polar Express story.  We arrived at the North Pole and saw Santa sitting among the lights waving.  We kept going a little past it to where "he stores the toys," and then Marshmallow (one of our cabin chefs) told us that if we didn't see Santa when we went back through, it must mean he was ON THE TRAIN. 

The children didn't need much coaxing to go to bed... we were all worn out from a super fun day.  The next morning, we had to pack up our things to get ready to leave.  Waaahhh.  It was just too short of a weekend.  But, we decided to drive into Asheville to go to the Sierra Nevada brewery.  That place is gorgeous.  And we had a delicious lunch of tapas... with applebutter pizza, candied beets, and beer butter pretzels.  Delish.  It was a great way to send off a really fun weekend-- a great early Christmas gift to each other. 

Here's how else we celebrated Christmas with our families. 

You're Doing What? {Costa Rica Day 1}

"You're doing what?!"

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that over the last twenty four hours, I could pay for a checked bag.  Instead I'll just roll this stuffed carry-on down the jet bridge.  But, we'll say it again, "We're going to Costa Rica tomorrow!"

There are many days where I think I may be losing my mind, but booking an international trip 26 hours beforehand may make me certifiably crazy.

 So, here's how it happened. Remember how I said we spent our ninth anniversary at Chuck E. Cheese?  Well, all day as I was driving around in beautiful, sunny fall weather, I couldn't help but miss driving up to DC with Sam last year on our anniversary. We took our big trip to Europe in June as our annual celebration, so we didn't plan anything, even dinner out, for our anniversary. Big mistake. We know going forward to at least plan something, so we don't end up on a last minute flight to Central America. :)

Sam and I chatted while he was at work, and although we had Alston's birthday party and Dad's visit the upcoming weekend, the following weekend we had free. So, Sam gave me the go ahead to look for a little weekend trip. Maybe to DC, maybe to Charlotte. And this is where the "If You Give a Pig a Pancake"-ing really begins. Well, if we are going to do DC, why don't we just mix it up and go to NYC for the weekend?  I start looking at hotels and airline award mileage charts. There's a quick flight out of Roanoke, but not with American, so we can't use my accrued miles. And my gracious, even two nights in New York is outrageous, before even factoring in food or entertainment. So, I start thinking, well, if we are going to spend that much, we might as well go somewhere warm. So, I start looking at deals for Florida. Hmmm, we could do Miami or Tampa. But, why redeem miles for those when we have such affordable flights out of ROA via Allegiant Air?

That's when I see a little blurb at the bottom about fall mileage specials to Central America.  Just out of curiosity, I decided to click on it, y'know, just to see.  Well, it turns out we could go to Costa Rica (which has been on our travel bucket list for the last five years) for HALF as many miles as it would take for us to fly to NYC.  Come again?  Then, of course, it just made sense to do a little peek on Hotwire to check out hotel prices.  And... we could stay at a 4* all-inclusive for the same price a night as a hotel in DC, and about $150 less per night than New York.  Sam was all for the "little weekend trip" to somewhere driveable, but I had a sneaking suspicion that adding another "big trip" to 2015 may not be something he'd go for.  So, like any wife that's been married nine years, I sent him a halfway kidding message to test the water.  :)  I was fully expecting his response of "you've lost your mind."  What I wasn't expecting was his next line.  "But, if we can make it work, let's do it."

What are we, crazy people?  We have jobs, kids, dogs, a house... we can't just up and go to another country.

And then we did.

We checked with Rachel to see if she could stay with the girls the few school nights, and she could.  We asked the Fertittas if the girls could stay with them for the weekend, and they said sure.  We verified with Kasey that she would be willing to work with Rachel's work schedule and help with anything Harper would need for school.  Yes, yes, and yes.  Then, on Monday morning, we checked with our respective bosses to ask off for Wednesday-Friday.  Another green light.  I asked my work partner if she could take two appointments I had with customers, and she was happy to.  Everything was falling in to place! Just to go ahead and start daydreaming, I pulled up the weather in Guanacaste, Costa Rica to send to Sam, and that's when I saw it.  Highs in the upper 80s, low 90s and... 100% chance of rain and thunderstorms every. single. day. for the next ten days.  What?!  No wonder it was all so cheap, it's the rainy season!  I pulled up TripAdvisor and quickly messaged the first ten tour groups listed to 1) ask if the weather was really as bad as it looked and 2) find out if they could even accommodate us for an excursion on this short of notice.  And maybe they were just being salespeople, but each and every one of them messaged me back nearly immediately and relayed that yes, it is the rainy season, but it usually only rains for a bit in the afternoon.  And of course they could schedule us.  They'd be happy to take our money.  :)

So.... on Monday evening at 5:55 p.m., before running out to the girls' friend Bryce's fourth birthday party, we booked the flights with my American Airlines award miles.  And then, I pulled up my eBates app, routed to Hotwire, and booked three hotels--our resort in Guanacaste, Costa Rica and hotels in each of our layover airports of Miami and Charlotte.  On Tuesday, we worked full days, came home and threw some clothes in our suitcases, grabbed our passports, and met Rachel and Mimi at the airport at 6:45 p.m. to check in for our 7:50 flight.  What. a. whirlwind.

This time around, the girls were quick to give hugs and "have a good time"s, whined about getting to go next time, and then happily hopped back in the car.  The novelty of Rachel's new car and Syd riding along with Mimi was plenty to keep them happy.

The airport was absolutely dead, but it still took us a little while to check in.  Apparently, the merger between American Airlines and US Airways was finalizing on Saturday, and we were returning to the States on Sunday.  Since it wasn't showing the return flight under their current system, it kept asking if we had visas to stay in Costa Rica indefinitely.  Eventually a manager figured out what was going on and overrode the request.  And that was our one and only snag of the entire trip.

While sitting at the terminal, I sent my TripIt (one of my must have free travel apps.  You need it for your next trip!) itinerary to my mom and dad so they'd know where we were each leg of the trip.  We had six flights with three hotels, so it was a lot to type out in an email.  It was so nice to just add them as "viewers" to our trip.  About three minutes later, I start laughing as I see an incoming call from Dad.

"Kid.  What on earth are you doing?!  Why are you going to Liberia??!"  The airport serving the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica is called the Liberia airport.  But, poor dad thought I was headed to Liberia, Africa.  Ha!  The nice thing about that misconception is when I said, "oh no, Dad, we're just going to Costa Rica," it didn't so quite so ridiculous, especially since this wasn't planned when he was just at our house two days before.

This flight timeline is the complete opposite of our Europe flight strategy.  We had plenty of time in between flights (sorry, guys, no running through the airport stories this go round!), and actually had an overnight layover in Miami before our flight into Liberia the next morning.  My only required amenity for our hotwire search here was an airport shuttle, so we got a 3.5 star hotel near the airport for $68, and it ended up being Element by Sheraton.  The shuttle was a bit slow (it was about 1 a.m. by this point), but we were so pleased with the accommodations.  Super spacious, comfy beds, and a really nice continental breakfast.  

Our one larger bag was checked all the way through to Costa Rica, so it took no time to pack back up our carryon and catch the shuttle back to the airport.  Wayyyyy better than crashing on the floor of the Miami airport for nine hours.  We are rested up and ready for you, Costa Rica!