AmTrack

I love my dad for so many reasons. One reason in particular is that he could pass for a ten year-old boy at heart. While all of my siblings were making their journey to Utah to re-unite for a few weeks at my parent's house, my dad (and mom) were scheduling all sorts of activities and events for us to enjoy while we were there. My dad was especially thrilled about an idea he had come up with. He couldn't wait for all 18 of us to ride a real, live train. The idea sounded fun to all of us too, and we anxiously hopped "on board" if you will. ;) As the days leading up to the train ride were counting down, we discovered a few hiccups that must have been found in the fine print of my dad's exciting proposal. 

a: the train was to depart at 4:30 am (meaning we all had to wake up at 3:45)

b: the train would drop us off in Helper, and we'd need three cars there waiting for us when we got there... so four of us (me included) took a car to Helper the afternoon before the train ride to leave 3 cars

c: it was going to be dark outside the train for the majority of our trip, leaving us little/no scenery to observe along our way.

If you know my dad at all, or know our family, you would understand that aside from these 3 glaring drawbacks, we all played along in pure elation about the idea of this ride, even though I think most of us were really just wondering what in the world was the point of it all.

3:35 came along... and we were off! Off to board the train in Provo, Utah, and from the get go, we were have a blast. Truly.

The train station was awesome. Right down in south Provo, we parked our cars at the curb and walked about 20 steps to get there.

There's the big man himself. You did good, dad. The train ride was awesome.

All of the nieces and nephews were along for the ride. Aren't they adorable?

 Boarding the train was an adventure. It happened very quickly. A man grabbed our tickets and hole punched them, and we walked on to the train, up to the top where the seats were, and sat down, surrounded by lots of darkness and lots of sleeping people. Apparently not everyone was there for a joy ride the same way we were. 

We were giggly and excited when we boarded and not at all tired like the other passengers. We played games and switched from seat to seat. At one point, my dad had every grandchild on his lap.

After we arrived in Helper we drove to the next town so we could eat breakfast. All in all, the AmTrack train ride was a pretty darn good idea after all.