Day Out With Thomas!

What is it about little boys and their trains? Today we went to Baldwin City, Kansas and spent a day out with Thomas the Tank Engine (or "Pas" as Christopher calls him). Although we participated in a previous day out with Thomas while we were in Baltimore, this time, we got to actually ride on the train. This was Christopher's first train ride and he loved it. We received some great advice from one of our neighbors who told us to sit in the open air car. It's funny because everywhere you turned, there were boys between the ages of 1 and 5 with maybe 3 or 4 girls scattered throughout. I think the girls were just along for the ride with their brothers. Here is little buds on his first train ride!

We have some video too but as our Mac is giving us issues (again! I am not happy with you Apple...) and our other computer doesn't like the Flip camera, you will have to wait to see it... Anyway, after the train ride, you could get your picture taken with Thomas. We didn't want to get ripped off so we brought our camera to take a picture and figured we wouldn't buy the one they took. Well, this is all we could get on our own because all Chris wanted to do was turn around to talk to his big blue friend. So, yes, we did get ripped off and bought the good picture. (We'll try to get that one up soon too).
They had some other fun activities, including a tatoo parlor (it's temporary!) where Chris got a tatoo and is now proudly wearing a picture of Thomas on his forearm, a model train set-up, and a hay maze. Interestingly, there was a petting zoo complete with goats, calves, and donkeys, but Christopher wanted nothing to do with them. I guess he wants to remain loyal to his flock of goats at Deanna Rose. Here he is in the hay maze devising a plot to take over the world a la Stewie Griffin (click on the picture and check out his face).
There was also a big bubble area with an electronic bubble blower and a do-it-yourself area. Here is Chris trying to do it himself:

On the way out, the local fire department brought one of their trucks for the kids to check out. Chris got a chance to drive it just before the shuttle bus came back to pick us up. (Oh, did I forget to mention we rode from the parking lot to the train depot on a school bus? It's Christopher's second favorite mode of transportation). Here is CJ in the driver's seat. He still has a ways to go before he can reach both the pedals and the steering wheel.
And in unrelated pictures, Christopher was very excited to try on Daddy's Yankee hat yesterday. Here is the little man wearing the big man's hat: