Our Day Out With Thomas

Calen has loved Thomas the Train since before he could talk. In fact one of his first words was "choo choo" (more like "Choo Choooooooooooooo") and he would squeal and dance in circles whenever the Thomas show opening music started up. And since then, he's acquired a respectful amount of Thomas paraphernalia: toys, clothes, sleeping bags, movies, etc. And last but not least his uber metal Thomas toy train collection and tracks that he plays with every.single.day. 

While he's finally starting to outgrow Thomas, as in not begging to watch it every day, it's still one of his all time favorite characters. And when I heard a little rumor that a real Thomas the Train showed up in Some-Random-Town Pennsylvania and gave rides and there was a whole Thomas festival, I ran out and bought tickets. 

In February. 

Hey, plan ahead right?

In my defense I heard it sold out pretty quick. And I wasn't about to miss out on my opportunity to win my Mom of the Year award and trophy among local three year olds. 

Also, we didn't tell him until TODAY. Because I didn't want to hear "Are we going to see Thomas today?" every single day for the last SEVEN months.

Three hours away from home lies Strasburg PA, the heart of gorgeous farmland and rolling hills and Amish country and all that fun stuff. Right away when we got there Thomas himself was chugging into the station for his first ride of the day (ours). We had a little bit of time so I asked Calen if he wanted to go "meet" Thomas first but he said absolutely NOT, he needed to get onto Annie and Claribel (the coaches) immediately. So we did. And thus started an all day shit-eating grin on Calen's face that would not disappear until we left. He announced to the entire coach car that we were sitting in "Claribel" (we were sitting in the second car) and that he was going to take us for a ride around the "Island of Sodor" (he was fully convinced that we had traveled to Thomas' island and was pointing out the name of the station, the "steamworks" where they fix the trains, etc). This ride was pretty short, maybe 20 minutes total. But Thomas' whistle sounded just like on the show and it was a real steam train so you could hear the steam whooshing and the chugging and all that fun train stuff that every little boy dreams of. 

Shit.eating.grin. (on "Claribel" on the Thomas train)

After our first ride we got off and "met" Thomas (i.e. take the obligatory picture with him..it...whatever). Thomas' eyes actually move which was really cool but kind of creepy. 

The boys and Thomas!

We then saw a little diesel train chug by on a different track that was giving out rides. Calen immediately said it was "Mavis" (some little diesel train on the show that looks and sounds just like this one...pretty clever of Calen actually). So of course we HAD to ride Mavis. 

Right after that we dove into a line to meet the Sir Topham Hatt (the conductor boss guy on the show). The line took foreva - long enough that I let Calen eat half of his lunch in line. And when it was his turn, he even obediently ran up to him and instantly turned around and smiled at me so I could get a picture. He is well trained that boy.

Sir Topham Hatt

We took a lunch break after and then went into the Thomas shrine, aka the gift tent. (yeah, it wasn't a store, it was an event tent. A gift event tent. A HUGE ONE). He somehow found two trains that he didn't own and picked them out as his special treat for the day. I managed to smuggle a couple things into the diaper bag for Christmas. 

And just when we thought we had managed to escape the goodies area only spending $20, we found a buggy. An Amish buggy. Selling Amish things. 

And how could I walk pass the charming little Amish lady in her bonnet selling the most adorable hand crafted wooden toys you ever did see?

So we decided to get a couple of heirloom wooden toys for the boys. You know, toys that they aren't allowed to play with until they are old enough to be incapable of causing harm to them. Like when they're 30. But really, something special that they can pass down to their sons and their sons' sons and so forth. 

Besides, when am I going to be able to buy handmade Amish toys out of the back of a buggy again any time soon? Like, never. 

Goodies. Two new trains and two Amish made toys for the boys.

We had time to kill before our next (and last) train ride so Cam and I played while Calen rode on this mini hand-crank train fifteen thousand times. 

And then the grand finale: the BIG, authentic real steam train came and took us on a forty minute train ride in an open car right through beautiful Amish country. You could even see them out plowing their fields with their horse-drawn plows. By this time the boys were pretty tired and trained-out, so Calen mostly just laid on the seat and played with his new trains while Cam fussed in Brad's lap. But Brad and I really enjoyed this ride as it was more "grown up" and the scenery was incredible. This area had everything that south Jersey doesn't have. Hills, farms, grass, and a smell of freshly turned earth (as opposed to Jersey's smell of cigarettes and burning skin from over-tanning). 

Our big Strasburg Railroad steam train ride

After this train ride we said goodbye to Thomas and headed home. We did not make it out of the driveway before both boys were unconscious and drooling in their carseats. 

And all of this before 2:30pm. 

Great day. TONS of fun. Going to be hard to outdo a day like this for Calen for the next rest of his life.

 

 

 

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