Chugga Chugga

We had quite the fun weekend at our house. Saturday began with a trip to the lake. It was so relaxing and fun to just enjoy the boat, the lake and summer sun with just the three of us. It was a bit cloudy in the morning, but by the time we arrived at the lake the sky had cleared to a bright blue. We anchored the boat near a calm little cove and enjoyed the afternoon playing in the water, throwing rocks into the lake to see them splash, squeezing mud between our fingers and toes and feeding the ducks.

The fun continued Sunday, when the little man got to meet one of the most beloved childhood characters - Thomas the Train.

And I don't' mean a cartoon, story teller or small little toy train. A real, live, functioning TRAIN.

A small train depot in a neighboring town featured a real Thomas the Train where the whole family could not just meet and see Thomas, but could also ride on him.

We told little man we were going to see Thomas. He was excited, but I knew that he didn't quite understand. We loaded into the car and made the short drive. Due to the large crowd and lack of parking at the train depot, we parked at the high school and caught a school bus shuttle to the train station.

That was the first of what I would definitely call the 3-year-old boy trifecta: a school bus, a fire truck and a train.

Little man nearly exploded with excitement when he saw the school bus and we told him that we were going to ride it.

He stood in the seat (with daddy's help, of course), opened the window and felt the wind in his hair as the school bus began to drive.

"This is FUN mommy!" Little man exclaimed, with a big smile on his face.

And that was just the school bus.

As we rounded the corner, the train depot came into view. There was a city fire truck set up for the kids to explore. Little man immediately zeroed in on it.

{more on that in my next post}

We could barely pull little man away from the fire truck. He didn't understand what was just on the other side of the train station.

But mommy and daddy knew.

My husband took little man by the hand and told him he needed to see something. That there was something just around the corner that he needed to see. Little man followed daddy, looking back at the fire truck.

As we rounded the old brick building, little man then saw it.

Thomas the Train.

A real Thomas the Train.

His eyes grew big as he stood next to the train. I can only imagine how big it seemed to a 3-foot-tall little man.

He squealed and pointed, "Look mommy, daddy! It's THOMAS!"

The little man's magical world of Thomas was alive in front of his eyes.

After a short wait (which of course was passed by visiting the event's menagerie of all things Thomas the Train) we boarded the train for our ride.

It was a 30-minute train ride through the farm fields. We rode on a restored 1930's Canada Pacific car that had been made to look like Thomas' passenger car. We saw cattle, fields, tractors and a wide assortment of other exciting (well, exciting to a 3-year-old riding on a train) things. All of the other children on the train were just as excited as our little man. There was chattering about Thomas and wide eyes throughout the car.

As we pulled into the station we bid farewell to Thomas.

"Bye, bye Thomas!" Little man said, waving at the train. "That was fun, mommy, daddy."

Even though the train ride was just 30 minutes, we all took home memories that we will hold with us for a lifetime.

And, of course, a Thomas the Train whistle.