Salt Lake City, Utah to Naperville, Illinois

How do you get from Salt Lake City to Naperville Illinois with six kids and a van that seems to spend more time broken than fixed?  You take a train of course!! 1:30 am we leave Grandma and Grandpa's house and head to the station.  Kids are all tuckered out from helping move boxes for three days, but for me it was better than Christmas morning.  I was so excited!!!  I have never ridden a train.... well besides the Disneyland train and a Polar Express train.  It was seriously exciting.

As we were sitting in the train station waiting, waiting, waiting for the train,(it actually was not that much for real but the kids sure thought it was) the kids actually thought they might die.  They kept telling me that they had never, ever, ever , in their entire lives been so tired in their entire lives.  Funny thing..... when I tried to get them to settle down and go to sleep earlier in the night they kept fiddling around.  :)  It was one of those glorious , "I told you ..... you should be quiet and go to sleep because the time was going to come fast that we had to get up."

Once we starting boarding the train, the kids FINALLY started to get as excited as me.  There were not very many people on the train, so we found some good seats and immediately took over a lot of space.   We got our luggage put away and started to settle in. It was not long before the train left the station. Which is when the adventure "really" began.  We looked out of the windows and wondered where we would be when the sun came up.

The kids were starting to get very, very sleepy. They were also starting to get sick of me taking pictures.  Hunter told me I was allowed 2 pictures a day and that was ALL!!!  Hmmmm... I don't think that is going to work for me.  Who put him in charge anyway? :)  I LOVE pictures!!

It did not take long before the little ones were out for the count!!!  Having worked so hard before getting on the train really worked well for me.  :)  I must say there is something very peaceful and serene about sleeping little ones and the quiet hum of the train as it moves along the track. Sleep well my friends, this may be a LONG journey.