Thomas! We Love You!

This past weekend we had the most fun ever. At least according to C&G! On Saturday we traveled to Lancaster to visit none other than Thomas the Train!!! WOOOT WOOOT! Thomas visits the Strasburg Railroad a few times a year and we have been planning on seeing him for MONTHS!

Saturday morning we were all packed up and out the door right after breakfast! C&G are such good travelers! They have lots of practice traveling back and forth to the Land of Grandmas which is about a 2 1/2 hour trip. They do really well on that trip with no "DVD entertainment" but on longer trips we set up their DVD player. Given all of this, Daddy and I found it pretty funny that G started asking for a "show" approximately 5 seconds after pulling out of the driveway. We convinced her to make it another 2 1/2 hours before we turned it on for her!



We met up with GraGra, Papa Greg, Grammy, and Papa Frank near our hotel for lunch. Gillian pulled yet another graceful move, tripped, and fell into the rung of a chair. She managed to give herself a horizontal bruise on her forehead to match the vertical one on her cheek! That girl!

Anyway, we headed to the hotel and while Daddy and Papa Frank went off to visit a train museum, GraGra, Grammy, and I took the kids for a swim in the hotel pool! (No pictures of this since Daddy took the camera to museum with him!) Colin loved, loved, loved jumping off side into awaiting arms. And G was so excited to find the 3 feet deep hot tub to swim in. It's the only place she's ever found to swim that doesn't make her shiver!

Photo of the train museum!


We all had a very nice dinner at a local microbrewery in downtown Lancaster. Funny story: we had been trying to decide between MicroBrewery A and MicroBrewery B before we left. We settled on Microbrewery A and I (thought I had) made reservations there. We walk in late to Microbrewery A and they look confused but are getting us a table. Meanwhile, my phone rings! It's Microbrewery B asking where we are and are we coming! Ummmmm, no. Seems I called the wrong brewery to make reservations! I felt badly, but the place where we were actually seated us very quickly and it was the place we actually wanted to be! (Can I still blame Mommy brain 3 years later?) Anyway, it was a yummy meal and the kids were FABULOUS! Especially considering they only had a brief lay-down in the afternoon, not a real nap!

After dinner we gave the kids a bath in our VERY large, whirlpool style tub. They thought that was awesomely cool. It was like another swimming pool! Then we settled them down in their air mattresses for their first official night's sleep in a hotel. They actually were pretty excited about the whole hotel thing. They kept asking question after question about what a hotel was and how it worked and where it was and why were we staying there. They kept calling the hallways "tunnels" and Colin asked us why there were all those DOORS! GraGra and Papa Greg had a room with a separate bedroom, as did Daddy and I, so we hosted the kiddos. Colin stayed with Papa Greg (of course) and Gillian chose to stay with Daddy and I! I think they were out like lights!

Bright and early on Sunday morning we were up and raring to go! We had a quick breakfast at the hotel, and C&G impressed some random strangers with their behavior. It's always so nice when strangers compliment your kids' good behavior! Then we were off to Thomas!!!

Due to all the recent rain, the railroad had off-site parking and had school buses to bring people into the station! I'm not sure if they realized that to my kids, riding a real, live school bus was just about as cool as riding Thomas! Then, we were there!


And look! Trevor the Traction Engine!


And there he is! THOMAS!!!

He was actually really, really cool! A real working steam engine that looked exactly like our best bud Thomas!

There were lots of tents set up and other attractions that came with our train ride ticket!


Colin really enjoyed his day at Thomas, but we think parts of the day were too loud or overwhelming for him. Or he didn't sleep well at all the night before; he just wasn't as peppy or as excited as we thought he would be. Gillian was though! However, C seems to have enjoyed himself since he's been talking about it nonstop since we got in the car to come home!

We picked one of the open cars to ride in when it was our turn to ride on Thomas.



The ride never really picked up a whole lot of speed and Thomas pushed us one way down the track then pulled us back the same way! It only took about 15-20 minutes, but the kids loved it!


(See that leg that C has his hand on? That's me. Apparently I am not in ANY of the pictures from the weekend)

After our train ride we tried out a number of the other attractions at the train station! Colin's favorite was the cranky cars!


(Oh hey, those are my feet! Another picture of me!)

They had a miniature steam engine that we rode too. It was pretty cool. The young man who was running it would get off after each (short) ride and feed it some coal or some water or oil it! But, Daddy really wanted to do the pumper car! So did Papa Frank! So, off they went!



We stopped for a bit to watch Thomas chuff in and out of the station and listen to him chug, chug, chug. And whistle!



See all his adoring fans?


This is one of the regular steam engines that always resides at Strasburg. They have dinner theater and wine & cheese rides, and all sorts of fun. Gillian keeps pretending she's this engine now!


After checking out all the fun and picking out Thomas balloons from Grammy, we hit the road. Well, hit the school bus back to our car, then hit the road! We grabbed a quick lunch, kissed the grandparents, and made for home! After two very busy days and not enough sleep, I was hoping the kids would zonk out for at least half and hour or so. But, no such luck. Those two TALKED the entire 4 1/2 hour trip back home. Without watching tv. They were so good. And so chatty!

Daddy and I were so proud of our kiddos; they were so well behaved all weekend and so happy and so eager to do what was asked of them. C&G obviously enjoyed exploring every new thing they came across and they were just darn pleasant to travel with. It was a fantastic weekend, and we can't wait for more adventures!