Day out with Thomas 2015

 The last weekend in September, we went to visit Granna and Papa for the annual "Day out with Thomas!" We have been so looking forward to this trip. Jack is still a train enthusiast and he has infected the entire family. :) Ella plays "choo-choos" too. We made a long weekend out of it, Granna took Friday off, and we went to a fun sports/arcade place in Charlotte. Charlotte is a great family city. The kids had a ball! Granna bowled with Jack and Ella in the "kid friendly" alley. It was short and had bumpers all the way down. They rode rides, played arcade games...we all had a ball!

 The last picture is of Jack carrying around his very heavy book bag. The next day, we were off bright and early for a very exciting, and very rainy, day out with Thomas. The weather last year was perfect so it was a bit of a bummer to have everything so soggy this year. Thankfully, we have a Granna that thinks of everything. She got Jack a Thomas the train umbrella!

We rode Thomas around the area, about 15- 20 minutes in total. Jack and Justin would narrate the things that we saw as if they were on the island of Sodor...the steam works, Wiff's junk yard, we saw a "Rocky" train that helps to tow derailed trains. It was pretty cool!

 Then, while finishing up the Thomas ride, we saw PERCY! Jack (above) was sitting with Granna and decided he HAD to ride Percy who was pulling cabooses. It was a pretty cool thing. There were several antique cabooses. We rode on one of the older ones, built in the 1920s that had serves as the conductors (or engineers...I can't remember) private sleeping quarters. It had a bathroom and potbelly stove! Pretty cool, huh? It was wooden and very romantic. We got to sit in the crows nest high up and look out!

 Us in the crows nest.

It was a blast, Thomas never disappoints. They both fell asleep before we made it back to the interstate. Hope to see you again next year Thomas!