Thomas!

So we made our annual pilgrimage to Rusk, Texas. You might ask, why would you make a 3-hour drive on Sunday? And the answer of course, is Thomas (and Cousin Alex)!



The girls were so excited when we finally got there.


Here's Clara running down to the station. It was a perfect day - no rain (unusual for us lately!) and in the high 60's.


The girls did some stamping, JM played with trains and we waited until it was time to board the train. Gracie also did a chalk drawing. Can you guess what that is??



And here they are on board (Mike, JM & I were still getting ready to get on the train):


Everyone on board & waiting to pull out of the station. It was about a 30 minute trip - forward for half and then backward the same way for the second half. But the kids don't mind - they like all the singing (so loud!) and talking about Thomas.


After riding Thomas, there are lots of fun (free!) activities to do. The favorite for the big kids this year seemed to be the "gold" dig.

Essentially, they had buried lots of different "gold" pieces in tubs of sand and there were sifters and shovels so the kids could find them.

Clara called them "sand dollars" for a while and I also heard the terms "rocks," "crystals," and "gold" floated around. JM got in on the action, too, but thank goodness he didn't amass a collection to take home. Clara and Gracie still have their treasured "rocks" (as they are now known) sitting on the bathroom counter. They are great fun to wash, examine under the light or in the sun in the car, and play with in the bathtime. (Maybe J will comment and let us know what's happened to Alex's collection . . . )


The big kids also liked the bounce house and feeding the animals at the petting zoo. The funniest part of the petting zoo were the two baby goats. (kids?) They were out of the pen for a while and John Michael was having a grand time trying to decide if he wanted to really be close to them or not. He would get close and one of them would spring up a few feet in the air (I didn't realize they could jump so high - it was pretty amazing & funny!) I'm surprised at how brave Clara was about feeding them. I never know what to expect with her!

We had a great time & it was fantastic to see the gang from Houston, too. The girls nicknamed Uncle Jamie - Uncle "Chumby" and I think it is going to stick. We'll have to see. They thought it was hysterical. He was making them crack up all day by calling them by different names.

And even though this was at the beginning of our Thomas day, I thought this summed up how we all felt as we were leaving:

By the time we got home, we were able to carry three sound asleep children in to bed.