They're 2! They're 4! They're 6! They're 8!

A few months ago, I bought tickets to A Day Out with Thomas the Train in Baltimore, MD. William loves trains and watches Thomas every night before he goes to bed. He knows every character's name, their car number, and their color. I just knew that William would be so excited to attend and meet Thomas in person. I waited until Saturday morning to tell William where we were going and he beamed in wonder along with "Yeeeeessss! See Thomas!" I am not sure he really "got it" at that point, but he was really, really happy. I had ordered his t-shirt awhile back from a good friend on mine in Alabama. I kept it in his drawer until Saturday morning. When I showed it to him, he squealed in sheer delight as only a toddler can do.



We got to Baltimore about 1 hour before our scheduled train ride. This gave us plenty of time to walk around and absorb all the entertain options and allowed William some time to soak up his surroundings. The event was held at the B&O Railroad Museum which in itself is very impressive. The museum stores a variety of old train cars, locomotives, etc. and most have a historical value to them. There was even a Presidential Steam Engine from the 1800s. So, even though we were there for a Thomas the Train event, the museum was also open to everyone and I must say, it made the whole event even more enjoyable.



Most of the activities took place inside the old railroad station which William noticed right off as "Mama, it's Tidmoth Sheds!" - that is Thomas' "house." Lego Duplo was a sponsor for the Day Out with Thomas so they had constructed the MOST ELABORATE cityscape out of nothing but legos. There were trains running over the bridges, but the town design was amazing. Everything was detailed from the construction worker holding a coffee mug, to people inside the lego hotel, to spider man scaling a building, a shipwreck with gold, etc. You name it, it was out of legos.




William could have stood by that display for 3 hours. He LOVED it. Dan didn't have a second to put William down because he could see so well up high. But, we did convince him to move on to something else when....................





Thomas came puffing down the tracks! William's eyes got as big as saucers and he said, "Yeeeeeesssss, it's Thomas!" He was delighted to see his best train friend in person. We crowded around the train so we could get a better look and take a few pictures. William was really excited to see Thomas, but was also overwhelmed with the "let's do it all!" feeling, that he was ready to tackle more of the fun. So, it was off to see Sir Topham Hat and to check out a few more train displays at the museum.



At 10:45 am, we boarded Thomas' rail car for a ride down the tracks. Thomas music was playing overhead and we found the perfect window seat. It was at this moment that William burst into tears. He thought we were leaving and not coming back. It took a few minutes and a graham cracker to convince him that we were only going for a ride. Once the train started moving, William was his old self and cheerfully announcing what he saw from the windows, "it's a bridge no water, just grass. It's moving! Here we go! It's baseball (there was a team playing in the distance), It's turning!" The conductor came down the aisle to hand out Jr. Engineer certificates to the kids and William stared at his for a long time.



We continued to check out the museum and after 3 hours of having a ball, we were ready to go! William had such a good time and I had even more fun creating the memory!