A Day Out With Thomas

SO... we finally did it! After years and years of "missing it" we finally got to go up to Heber City and ride on Thomas... I can't even begin to tell you how excited the kids were when we got up close to the train depot, and they could see Thomas chugging down the track with Annie and Clarabel and the other passenger cars... Even Kayla (who when we left home professed to NOT wanting to go see Thomas) was jumping up and down in her seat and shouting "Thomas! Thomas! Hi Thomas!"

The first thing we did upon arrival, was ride the train of course... we really lucked out and got there just in time to buy our tickets and jump on the train before it left the station... You should have seen Jadens face light up when he know he was actually riding ON Thomas the Train! I asked him which car we were riding in, and he said that "we were sitting in Clarabel, because Annie is first and we were in the last car, so it MUST be Clarabel!" Me personally? I was shooting for sitting in one of the open air carriages, but as soon as the kids saw Annie and Clarabel... you know the rest! The kids also got an "official" Jr. Engineer Certificate signed by Sir Topham Hatt...

After the train ride, we went on to see all the rest of the fun stuff there was to offer... unfortunately the first tent we came to was the Gift Shop... so we started out right away with some temper tantrums (Jaden) and wanting to buy everything in sight! But we agreed on buying a Thomas the Train Board Game and everyone was happy! (yay!) After that we moved on to see Sir Topham Hatt (sp?) Supposedly you were able to get a picture with him, but it was so hot he would only stand out there for 30 minutes then take a 30 minute break, so we never actually caught him out... we got in line a couple times and just as we got to the front of the line they would say the half hour is up! so we gave up on Sir Topham and moved on to something else! Besides riding on the train, Jaden really had a great time in the train table tent... Picture Toys R Us and times it by 5... there were like three small train tables and 2 or 3 BIG tables set up with tracks and trains and a lego train table and a coloring station and a stamping station... it was lots of fun! (sorry no pictures, I only got video of this one!!)

But I think the favorite over all was the tattoo station! We all got to be involved and I think we gave our tattoo artist a run for her money! Brian got a James tat on his cheek, Mom got Rosie on her bicep, Jaden got Thomas on one hand and Henry on the other and Percy on his cheek, and I got Harold the Helicopter on my hand and Thomas on my cheek! We were really decked out and lookin' pretty cool... and very appropriate for the Thomas Day Celebration!

They had a horse grooming station, where you could brush and groom these tiny cute little ponies and feed them. I was so proud of Jaden... he let a horse eat out of his hand... very brave, I would never do that! Then we moved on to the last station which was Movies and Storytelling... of course they only had movies... the couple running this tent was about 17 and obviously not in the mood to tell stories! While we were in the tent we heard a huge "WHOOSH!" and came out to see what it was, and it was a HUGE black train!! (I think this is the Heber Creeper Train, but not sure!) So we all came out to see it, and Jaden was so fascinated by the train, he walked right up to it and tried to stick his hand in some water leaking out of the bottom of the train. Luckily there was a member of the staff close enough to stop him, or he would have gotten a pretty bad burn, as it was the water from the boiler!! His mom just sat there and videoed him walking under a train! (HELLO?!?!?)

(*Picture is of Jaden standing right next to the train, notice that he is about half as tall as the wheel!!! It was HUGE!)

After that we were pretty tired and hot and hungry, so we took off to head up to Centerville and some fun family/cousin time... On the way out we stopped for some pictures by the big train psters that were on the gate. Naturally Jaden had to get a picture by EACH ONE!! All in all it was a very fun day... the kids did so great, it was 2 PM by the time we got lunch, and not one of them complained or whined!!

P.S. Some of you may be wondering why Kayla is not in many of the pictures... she had a pretty bad day and had 4 seizures while we were there, so she rested in the stroller for most of the day! Poor Baby!

Also, my job was video and Mom's job was pictures... unfortunately we didn't get her pictures downloaded before she went home, so we will have to make do with the few I took, but I have ALOT of video... coming soon!