Choo-Choo!

I invited Grandma to go with us to the Strasburg Railroad this week, and she agreed to come along on Wednesday, August 25. The first train was scheduled to depart at 11 am, so we made sure to leave our house in plenty of time to park, get our tickets and be in our seats before it left.

The boys had earned free tickets through the "Make a Splash" summer reading program. That said, Caleb was still free this year, but that's okay. Here they are with their papers, which I showed them to remind them of their accomplishment before we left. You'll notice that the boys got haircuts the night before!

Here we are at the Strasburg Railroad. Joshua picked out his train shirt, and Caleb wore a Thomas shirt for this special occasion. They were so excited!

And here's Mamaw with the boys.

When Joshua climbed on the train, he was a little nervous. He said "hold me! hold me!" I loved his expression in the picture above.

At first Caleb climbed in with me, and then he decided to go back with Mom & Joshua. Since Joshua wanted held, the four of us sat together with the boys on our laps.

Here's Caleb looking out the window. All aboard! It was time to depart in our coach.

I was surprised at how much information the 'engineer' gave as we chugged along the track. I also didn't realize that the train stops at a picnic spot or Cherry Crest Adventure Farm if anyone wanted to get out and do some more exploring. When the boys are a little older, I think that would be a fun addition to the day. The train ride itself was enough excitement for this trip.

Thankfully, the seat backs move, so you never have to ride backward. The train stopped and the locomotive switched places, and they allowed us to change up our seats. We were all happy about that! Here are the little guys posing for a picture outside the train after we got off. You'll notice Joshua's zippy - it was a little chilly and overcast that day. But, that's perfect weather for the train! Once again, the rain that they were calling for held off for our fun.

We walked around a little bit afterward, and Mamaw bought the kids a ride on the "cranky cars." Joshua talked about them the rest of the night. He said he liked both the train ride and riding the cranky cars as the best.

I loved their little expressions on these cars as well!

We had other fun adventures with Mamaw this past week. The previous Saturday we went to the Disney store to check it out. The boys love to look around in there - Joshua points out Nemo, Cars, Toy Story, Mickey, etc. They both got to pick a toy to come home, which both of them have kept by their side. Caleb picked a Mickey Mouse cell phone, and Joshua picked a little camera.

Later in the week, we went to AC Moore, which I'll post about separately. I will say, though, that that store has a lot of crafts for kids as well as kids' toys. I never think of it as a place for little guys' stuff, but they have good prices on Thomas trains when they have a sale.

The kids also received tickets to a Barnstormer's Game for their summer reading. That said, I don't think there's a charge for their ages anyway. And, they received a coupon for ice cream that we still have to use for them. When we were at AC Moore, I bought Joshua a couple new little books that are easy readers that we've been working on. He's starting to recognize that letters make words.

Caleb told Daddy about seeing the "choo choo train" when Daddy got home from work that night. Both boys think that that's what Daddy does for a living - he goes to work to play with big trains. In a sense it's true since his work does ship via trains, but it's not exactly what he does...

Thanks for coming along to the Railroad, Mamaw! The boys had a good time.