Day Out with Thomas!

Sunday after church, we all headed off to Strasburg, PA (about 1 1/2 hours west of us) for a little family getaway and to enjoy "A Day Out with Thomas"! Caleb (and Ellie) had such a blast last year ... he still talks about it ... that we decided to go this year as well. Only a few short years until they are on to bigger and older things! sniff.

Anyways, we had a lovely time! We stayed the night at the Red Caboose Motel - all the rooms are old train cars - situated on a farm right across from the Railroad Station. We had a blast exploring our train-room! Inside was a double bed and a bunkbed with a futon underneath. And yes ... a very small bathroom. :-) But it was surprisingly comfy!


We watched the Amish drive by in their buggies ("Why are they called buggies?" "Ummm, 'cuz they are."). We saw the farm animals - they particularly liked the "blond pony" - played on the nice wooden swing set, climbed the "tower" (a silo with 72 stairs winding up for a view of the countryside ... jelly-legs!), and then, my favorite, we joined other guests at dusk and watched "Monsters Inc." on the side of the barn, all wrapped up together in a blanket, with popcorn (just our family in the blanket - not the other guests ... perhaps I should clarify ...). It was a lovely night and I didn't even get a single bug bite! God is good.

Monday we ate breakfast in the Caboose Train car (chocolate chip pancakes - YUM!) and headed over to the Train Station. We had tickets to ride Thomas at 11:15, and the kids were SOOOOOO excited!


Here's a video from on the train ... Caleb was so intent on looking around he couldn't even comment about the train ride. :-)



We played with train tables (of course) and did a few other train "rides" as well ...

... the little train Cagney (they were pretty excited to go through the tunnel)


... the Cranky Cars (the kids sat and propelled the car by bicycling with their hands)


... and the push car (Aaron and I did the work while the kids held on ... what a workout!).


We had a lot of fun, and the kids were tuckered out during the ride home. Caleb picked out a replica of one of the diesel trains for his train table ... and he is treasuring it! He still treasures the Express Coaches that he picked out at last year's Day Out with Thomas. It's neat to see him look at the picture of the REAL train #90, and then squeal about his little wooden train #90.

Ahhhhhh ... the joy of trains. I wish I would've thought of a wierd little talking train years ago ... I'd be rich.

~JG