A Day out with Thomas

Every little boy's dream- meeting Thomas the Tank Engine. Jacob loves Thomas. We have wooden train tracks and engines, we have diecast engines, we have dvd, we have books... You get the idea. Thomas is a big deal at our house. I found out that Thomas makes a visit once a year to a train station about an hour from us. I knew we had to go! Yup, he was thrilled, "THOMAS!!!!!"

This was some setup! We met Sir Topham Hatt, the director of the railway. Beth wasn't interested, and Jacob would only go with Daddy. The kids got temporary tatoos- Jacob picked Percy and Beth picked Rosie. We played with trains and tracks. There were blocks and puzzles and stamps too!

We colored pictures. There was a great Thomas bounce house and slide. They giggled with delight! We even got to watch a little of a Thomas movie for a few minutes. We all enjoyed the toy train setup. I think it had at least 4 trains running, some complete with steam coming out and whistles blowing.

But, the best part of all was a ride on a real train. Thomas pulled the train along the track. A 30 minute ride in a passenger car. Beth wondered why we were going so slow. She loved that the conductor punched our tickets, even though it wasn't fancy like on Polar Express. Jacob was just mesmorized that we were riding with Thomas. He loved dancing, clapping and singing along to Thomas's songs coming through the speakers. At the end of the day, they both said riding the train was the best part.

Toot! Toot!

After we'd visited all the activities, we headed to the gift shop where they got little view finders for visiting all the spots. Then, Jacob picked a Thomas flashlight (he now has to carry all 3 of his flashlights everywhere). Beth picked out a Thomas art set. We feasted on wonderfully greasy fair corn dogs. Even Jacob, my picky eater, liked his. We had found all the fun we could handle, so it was back to the car to head home. Some were a little more tired than others. :)