A Day Out with Thomas

For Addison & Mackenzie's birthday, my mom bought tickets for A Day Out with Thomas at a nearby railroad depot.  This past weekend was the date we picked, and Jeremy and I had a great day hanging out with our girlies.

There was a life-sized working replica of Thomas the Train, which I totally neglected to get a picture of.  To be honest, though, A & M were just as enthralled with the posters, activities, and plain old passenger trains as with the actual Thomas.

There was a petting zoo with lots of goats, a rooster (??  never seen one of those in a petting zoo, and he really didn't look in the mood to be touched), a sheep, and a llama.  Addison loved the goats and probably would have stayed in there watching the animals for an hour or more if we didn't have to leave for our turn to ride the train.  Mackenzie liked the baby goats at first, but a big one pushed his head between us when she wasn't expecting it, which pretty much did her in on the petting experience.

The girls got to play their first-ever round of mini golf (or, okay, a hole and a half of mini golf!).

We boarded Thomas for our train ride and the girls were having a blast taking everything in.  Jeremy and I were excited to sit still for about 25 minutes!  A & M liked the train ride, but again, I think they enjoyed everything else there was to do even more.  We are thinking about taking a train in the fall to visit Auntie LJ in Louisiana, and from our experience Saturday, I think it would work out well.

After the train ride, we went back to the activities area to the music tent, which was by far the highlight of the girls' day.  The guy singing asked the kids to come up and grab an instrument to "help" him with his songs, and much to my surprise, Addison was all for it.  Mackenzie took a little nudging from me, but she followed her sister and really enjoyed it too.  They strummed little plastic guitars, banged a tambourine, and discovered the joys of playing the bongos.  I was SO proud of my sometimes-shy girls for jumping up there and joining the fun!

It was a great day for our little family, topped off with a spur-of-the-moment decision to eat at a good restaurant on the way home, instead of the fast food we initially intended.  Jeremy commented on the way home that he is thankful we are in a position to be able (financially and physically) to take the girls to do things like this.  I wholeheartedly agree...while I love lazy days at home, I also love taking the girls to make priceless family memories like these.

One last highlight of the weekend for me:  Both girls successfully used public restrooms several times this weekend!  While they have been potty trained for quite some time, the girls' modus operandi when we are out and about is just to hold it until they absolutely can't hold it anymore (which is a LONG time), then demand to go home immediately.  Which doesn't work so well when you're an hour and a half from home.  So hooray for public restroom progress!