my day with Thomas

I am one of those sucker parents now--I took Dennis to the big Day Out With Thomas event at the local railroad museum. That's a big moneymaker for sure! But I must admit, for the amount of joy he got from his train ride, it might have actually been worth it. I could have just gone to the event and not bought a train ticket and he would have seen Thomas and had his picture made and had a balloon animal made and watched the movies and heard the storyteller and met Sir Topham Hatt. But when we arrived this morning at 8:52, there weren't many folks there and I went right to the ticket window and we were on board the 9:00 train (even after having our photo made). Dennis said "Dennis ride train" and "choo choo" and "ride Thomas", and he danced in his seat and waved at the conductors and had a generally wonderful time. We were on board a wonderful old car built in 1910 (the Frisco Coach). The Cahaba lilies were in bloom all along the low areas in the woods--Dennis pointed them out saying "look that" and "white floweys" (his word for flowers). It was cloudy and cool this morning but not a bad morning at all for a train ride. And as soon as we got in the car afterward (after he said "thank you Tommy" and "bye bye Tommy" to the train as we were leaving), he said "lake house Ju-Ju Steve" and that's where we headed.

This afternoon, Dennis went for a ride in Uncle Denny's new golf cart. He LOVED it. We had the most difficult time getting him out of it after three trips around to the marina. He wanted to drive it and even put the keys in the ignition after we'd gotten out while looking over at his Gran and patting the seat beside him and saying "sit down, Gran". He went fishing today, too, and is now FINALLY napping. I don't know what he's going to do next week after all the excitement of this week, what with the zoo trip and the train ride and the Ju-Ju and Steve visit. I hope life won't seem too dull for him back at home with Mommy! Maybe he'll be excited to rediscover his toys after being away from them for a few days.