Riding the Thomas Train

A Day out with Thomas came to our town this summer. For the uninitiated, it's basically a train ride with a giant Thomas engine in the front (that I'm pretty sure is just for show, but it's a cute idea) plus a bunch of other activities for kids around the train depot. I'm not typically a big fan of these commercial-ly types of events for kids, but Larson is pretty into Thomas so we decided to give it a go. Things started out pretty well, with Larson excited to pose for the following shot with Sir Topham Hat...

And the train ride itself was a lot of fun and took us through some beautiful mountain scenery:

After that was when things started to go downhill. I don't know about the rest of you parents out there, but when our kids get hungry or tired, things can deteriorate pretty quickly. We held off lunch a little too long - oops! Overall it was a pretty fun day, but I can't handle too much manufactured fun at a time. Going for a walk, playing in the yard or park - so much less stressful (and there's no gift shop!).

I get an email once a week from a local parenting magazine with weekend "activities" in our area for families. I used to want to go to *everything*, but now I know better. Thomas, Bob the Builder, Santa, fairs, festivals, etc...I think enjoying them in moderation is going to be the order of the day.

I love this picture of Cora peering over the top of the school bus seat on our ride back to the parking lot.
"Goodbye, Thomas...Goodbye engineer!" (maybe next year we'll bring more snacks...)