Rio is a big Thomas the Tank Engine fan, so Grandma & Grandpa Harris took Rio, Me, Aunt Brenda and cousin Harrison to "A Day Out With Thomas" in Heber.
The weather was crappy, which bummed me out, but didn't seem to affect Rio in the least. The whole experience was really great. I thought for sure that it would be some half-ass attempt, maybe a tarp or something, to make the Heber Creeper look like Thomas, but it wasn't, it really was Thomas! Sir Topham Hat was there, late, but there to take pictures with the kids. They had a bunch of tents set up with a place to play with trains, get train tattoos, color pictures, have stories read, buy Thomas stuff {of course}, eat food and other things. It seemed like they really wanted to make it fun for the little kids.
So my review is two thumbs up! If you have a Thomas fan you should definitely look into it. http://www.hebervalleyrailroad.org/
Here is Rio in the train tent. I am embarrassed to admit that, with my baby, I have become one of those lame mom's who think that everything their kid does is cute and funny and other kids are just being wussies. In this picture Rio is yelling, "Bust my buffers! My brakes are out!" and running other kids trains off the table. I watched him do it a few times because I find the "bust my buffers" statement hilarious and I convinced myself that this is just social interaction. Well, eventually I noticed that he was ruining the fun for others and I pulled him away.
Here is another example of my awesome parenting skills, "Rio go sit on those train tracks, it will make a cute picture for my blog."
Really, it was safe and it would have been a cute place for pictures if I had a child who would cooperate. Rio's new thing is to look away and/or close his eyes whenever I get the camera out. I had Brenda, Glen's sister, behind me yelling, "Hey Rio, what's that?!" Just to get him to keep his eyes open.
We got the cute little Thomas engineer cap at the gift shop. It was so cute on him! However, it didn't stop any of the, "She is so cute! I can't believe she likes trains!" comments, to which I replied {to myself} "You are so dumb" and "I can't believe you are such an idiot".
The toy train was also a gift shop purchase. The trains name is Salty, but Rio makes us call him Kitten. I think he does that just to see if we will obey him. It works.
And really, when that face tells you to call something a Kitten
how do you disobey?
Finally, on the train. It was an awesome old coach and everything seemed just how I imagined a train to be. When I imagine trains at all.
We were lucky to sit next to the woman who swallowed a megaphone and survived. Have you heard of her? In addition to her miraculous survival story, she is also blessed with the knowledge of every Thomas song and the name of every train. Honestly, we could hear her above all of the little kids "Chugga, Chugga, Choo, Choo-ing" for the first ten minutes of the ride.
The only reason the noise stopped was because the train did. Yes, the "25 minute ride" means the train moves forward down the track for 10 minutes, then stops, and moves backward, back to the station. Funny and seemed a little cheap to the adults, but the kids didn't notice. And really who would want to be stuck on a train with hundreds of preschoolers when their attention span is up.
Yucky weather and all, it was a great day. Rio was so worn out that he took a long nap, which made the day even better for me!
Big Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Harris for taking us out for such a fun day!
One more thing, if anyone is in the market for elastic-waist jeans {for children and adults} I believe they can be found in Heber. There must be an entire store of them located somewhere near the "$hi**y Shoe Store" and "Horrible Haircuts Salon". What's the deal with Heber?
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