A Day Out with Thomas & Percy

On Saturday we took Grant to the Day Out with Thomas event at the Transportation Museum. Since we did this last year at Tweetsie Railroad, we thought it might be fun to check it out at a different location. When I went online to get tickets, I saw that you could buy tickets that included a ride with Percy too and as a friend put it...if you're going to drive all that way, you may as well ride Percy too. 

As soon as we got there, Percy was pulling into the station after a ride.

I was so focused on making sure we got there in time for our ride with Thomas...it never occurred to me to check our Percy time. So we got there...saw Percy...took some pictures...and then I found an employee to just find out what we needed to do. She checked our tickets and pointed out that our Percy ride was in 10 minutes!  So we boarded right then. 

So excited :)

It turns out that Percy was pulling the caboose train, which didn't offer much for sight seeing (tiny windows) but Grant really didn't care. He just wanted to ride the train.

At one point along the ride, our guide told us that we would be passing Thomas. Unfortunately we weren't sitting on that side. But the man and his son on the other side of the train offered for us to go over and share their window. He didn't have to ask twice. Grant was over there in two seconds.

I sort of wondered if the man had regretted his offer
because Grant talked their ears off (they were very nice).

The man also pointed out this "911 train" which became
Grant's obsession for the rest of the ride.

Immediately following our Percy ride we had to check in quick to get our wristbands and then head over to the line for our Thomas ride. 

There he is!

And he's pulling all those cars (with some help, of course)

The line moved quick and they were pretty organized. And we somehow got seated in the car right behind Thomas. When we walked into the car Grant said "I can see Thomas' skin!"

Excited to ride with Thomas!

The boy loves a map.

I just love how happy he is :)

So right before the ride starts the guide tells us that we have help Thomas by yelling "All aboard!" So everyone did...and then Thomas blows his whistle...

Grant was excited about hearing Thomas' whistle!

This ride offered better views from bigger windows. They take you back and forth on the tracks in front of the museum.

The roundhouse.

Some other trains out on the tracks.

They told us Percy would be passing us soon.

Hi Percy!

Waving to the people.

He had no desire to wait in line to have his picture
taken with Thomas, this was as close as we got
(behind him is part of line for pictures).

After that, Grant just wanted to check out the museum (convenient, because we did too).

They had a firetruck on display for the kids to check out.

What kid doesn't want to wear a real fireman's helmet?

The Transportation Museum is a really neat place. We had talked about going but this was our first time. So many great buildings filled with great stuff!

One building was just for model trains and all the little things that go with the model trains. There were so many buttons for the kids to push so they could watch all the little models do things! I'm pretty sure Grant pressed every single one.

They had a little Thomas too but I didn't get a
good picture of it.

One building had old cars in it.

The building I was most excited about looked like it was undergoing some repairs so most of it was restricted inside. It was the building that had all the old firetrucks in it (and a plane that Grant could see through the window).

After that, it was on to the roundhouse to check out more trains! So much neat stuff at this place!

From here you can see the turntable that you can ride. Of course,
we had to do that but it was raining so I didn't take pictures.

And we got to see Thomas on one of his last rides of the day.

After that, it was time to start heading back to the car but not before stopping so Grant could run through the hay maze.

I didn't realize how big this place was until we got there. If I had, I would have planned better because we didn't get to see everything. We'll definitely be making plans to go back!

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past two weeks. I skipped last week because of vacation so I'm combining them!

1) On Saturday, July 26, we left for a vacation in upstate NY to visit my family. We make this trip once a year and look forward to our summer vacation! Grant loved it because we stayed in a hotel on the way up and the way back AND he got to play with doggies all week at my sister's house!

He's allowed to jump on hotel beds (when Husband isn't looking).

Grant loves Lennon! (And Lennon loves Grant)

2) We did a TON of good eating on vacation (and by "good eating" I mean not the least bit healthy). My sister and I were desperately craving some exercise - never thought I'd say that - and got to go on a hike one evening just the two of us. It was a great trail with some awesome views!

Me & Sis

Seriously gorgeous, right??

3) It was pretty chilly for summer while we were there but on our last day before our two day journey south, we managed to get over to my Aunt & Uncles house for a swim. I just had to. I spent so much time there as a kid and LOVE swimming in the lake. It was too cold for Grant to willingly go any farther than his waist so I was the only one actually swimming (and it was really too cold for me but I had to!).

So pretty and peaceful :)

I love bringing Grant to the places where I spent so much time as a kid!

4) FOOD. There is so much food I miss from back home and I bring back as much as I can with me. This time it consisted of my favorite cheeses, favorite hot dogs (3 packages in my freezer and I'm the only one in the house who likes them!), favorite store-bought cookies, and salt potatoes - which are really just little potatoes boiled in extremely over-salted water and they're fantastic!

THE best store-bought chocolate chip cookies!

Salt potatoes cooked with Monday night's dinner

5) For about year we've been scouring places looking for the perfect toy box and just haven't found anything worth buying. My sister still had the toy box my dad built for us when we were little and was willing to part with it so we brought that home for Grant's room. I started re-organizing his room this week and got the toy box set up in its new home. I love that we're able to use what my dad made!

Happy Friday!

Have a great weekend!

Fun on the Farm

Remember our little Christmas visitor? Over the weekend we got to take a trip to the place where he came from. 

In April, my brother-in-law is getting married on their family farm and his bride-to-be asked me to do their wedding pictures. She's a brave girl. So we did a weekend trip out their way to go to the wedding shower and spent Sunday on the farm talking about pictures and letting Grant have some of the best fun ever. 

Grant asked us on the way over what animals he'd see. "Will I see cows?" Yes. "Will I see horses?" Yes. "Will I see eagles?" No. "Will I see pigs?" You get the idea. There are LOTS of animals there and he was just so damn excited from the minute we got out of the car. 

There were four dogs to play with, two of them would have let Husband throw sticks for them until his arms fell off. And some cats that Grant sort of chased down.

We rode out the the ceremony site in a cow pasture on what I call their "golf cart on steroids". Grant was SO excited about riding in it and seeing all the cows up close.

Then it was down to the pond - which is also the intended reception site unless it rains (lets hope it doesn't rain, ok?) - for some more fun with the dogs and some general "boys will be boys" dirtiness for Grant.

Digging in the dirt...of course.

And we got to watch big, sweet, pretty Mack turn into the dirtiest dog I think I have ever seen.

So now back towards the barn we go...it was time to see more animals!

Fennec foxes, aren't they cute!

Sasha the lemur was hungry for grapes!

One of two huge turtles (tortoises?)

Donkeys! Look at that lil' baby. (And check out the one
in the background that is clearly sleeping something off.)

All boy!

Grant even got to help Aunt Hollie feed some of the animals.

He tasked himself with filling the wheel barrow with hay.

Farming is tough work :)

Nothing better than a wheel barrow ride!

"Here...you eat all 'a' this and I give you more"

Now that was a fun day! There are so many more animals than I took pictures of and so much more fun was had than I took pictures of.It's always great when we get to spend time with Husband's brother & sister and Grant has so much fun with them. But getting to explore the farm with them and have so much made for such an awesome day! And we get to go back next month for the wedding :)