A Day out with Thomas

Today we visited the fanatic craze that is "A Day Out with Thomas". For those of you unfamiliar with this spastic extravaganza, let me share with you. Basically, you drive out to the middle of nowhere, to a place that is easily 10 degrees hotter than the place you live. Once there, you join the massive crowds of boisterous children and cantankerous parents vying for the attention of an old passenger train made up to look like the much beloved Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas travels all around the country and is only in town for a few days, hence the popularity when he rolls into your neck of the woods. In all honesty, though, it's not as bad as I make it out to be. It was actually a semi-pleasant day and not at all as horrid as my expectations. Mostly because the kid decided to have fun and actually behave today. We made it through with nary a tantrum. Can you believe that? To top it all off, the kid did not nap today. He was dizzy-tired, though, but didn't nap a wink. Not even on the long car ride back home. So no nap AND on good behavior? I swear the heavens were shining down on us today.

Here are a few pictures from our day. Bad mommy failed to get a good picture WITH Thomas. Oh well. Here's the best I could do...the kid and M are watching Thomas come down the track:

This was easily the best part of the kid's day. He cracks me up. The kid won't sit in a stroller, but he LOVES sitting on his great-grandma's lap when she's riding in her wheelchair. It's really sweet...because he's getting heavy and he won't be able to sit there much longer...as he may outweigh his great-grandma soon. Usually he's an incredible wiggle-worm, but he sits nice and quietly in "Gammie's" lap. The ice cream helps too.

Here's a picture of the kid in the "Imagination Station." Basically, it's a large tent with a ton of toys for children to run around and play in. Kinda nice because they have benches for the adults to rest. Thank goodness someone was thinking. Here's the kid playing with a Thomas track:

All in all, it was a nice, but exhausting day. M put the kid to bed tonight (an hour earlier than normal bedtime) and he said as the kid was drifting off to sleep, he gave daddy a recap of his day. Went something like this, "Thomas train...ice cream stand...french fries...chicken nuggets." See? It was a good day.