Sunday, June 12, 2011

Family Day (with Thomas)!

We have been really busy work wise. We have three weddings in the next three weeks, so we took today off to just spend time together as a family. So good. Yesterday was super busy as I went to a football playoff game and then rushed home, got ready, and then photographed a wedding all day. My feet were sore:)

Okay, so today we went to Squamish to spend a day with Thomas the Train. The boys are totally into cars and trains, not necessarily Thomas, but they were so excited. We heard Kai before 6am, downstairs. Gary went down there and Kai was already dressed and had our snacks ready for the trip. Amongst the snacks he packed were; four red peppers (one for each of us!) and a bag of mini marshmallows. He's so cute.
{Please note that it just looks like Kai's legs are longer because it's at the bottom of the frame of the wide angle lens:)}
It takes just over an hour to get to Squamish and we stopped at Shannon Falls for a bit to run around. I think the kids would've been happy just playing there all day. So many rocks to throw. So many trees to climb. So much dirt to roll in. I cannot wait to just camp and explore with them this summer. They are such a great age for it!!
The kids were hilarious. When we going over the Port Mann bridge, which is maybe 10 minutes from our house, the kids were like, `Wow, this is so amazing!' `Have I been here before?' `This place is so cool!'. You would think we never take them out:)
Koen made it in undies all day long, yay Kokies! Koen is, uh, a little bit of a monster these last few months. He was our super laid back boy and now, well, he can get grumpy. Really grumpy. I'm not sure if it's because he's two and a half, or teething (two molars have poked through), or because he's been sick for 3 weeks, or because he doesn't nap but needs it but then he's up til 9pm. Anyway, usually from about 2-6pm, Grumpy Koen comes out.
Kai was so excited to go to Squamish. I think he was imagining that we would be riding Thomas the Train very fast over very fun terrain. This was not to be.
So, we went to the railway museum there where everything was set up. It was expensive but we knew that and went for it anyway. Some people had told me it was a waste of money but another friend reminded me that it's not to impress the adults, it's really all for the kids. The kids really liked it.

There was a `professional' photographer taking pictures of the kids so of course they looked at his camera and not ours:)
There were cool trains, not Thomas related, to look at and walk through. Not to sound nerdy but I found the old mail car pretty cool. It showed how they used to put all the mail in various bags with towns from all over BC. Anyway, the kids could also write a letter to Thomas and apparently Thomas will write them back.
There were lots of stations like face painting, bouncy castle, Meet Sir Topham Hatt (oh my goodness, that costume looked ridiculously huge and hot), play with Thomas the train sets, play with stamps, colouring etc. We were actually there for 2.5 hours before our ride on Thomas the Train.
The half hour train ride was okay. Kai was a bit disappointed because it was so built up in his head which could've been my fault. It didn't go very fast or very far.
The conductor did come and stamp their tickets.
They got their `Junior Engineer' certificates. Koen doesn't seem to be impressed by a piece of paper.
You can't tell but the train was packed full. There were sooooo many people there. Most kids were probably 4 year old boys:) There were actually two other boys named Kai there and we've never met another one in our life.
They made balloon animals for the kids on the train.
Overall, it was just a great day. It was so worth it when I was getting Koen into his pj's tonight, he said, `Thank you for the train ride, Mommy.'. Wow. Without me asking him to say thank you! He's getting so big.

So nice to just spend time enjoying such a beautiful place with Gary and the boys. It made me totally excited for summer, I can't wait!

The train yard that we parked in, right next to the Railway Heritage Park would actually be a super cool photo location. Not sure if they'd allow it but ya, very fun buildings and trains there.

We're heading back up that way, to Whistler, this summer. Yippee!! Looking forward to some more hiking and outdoor exploring with the boys.

Have a great week!
Louise

9 comments:

  1. Fun!! My brother and SIL took Owen there today!

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  2. Lauren!! I totally saw them a bunch of times and was Gary and I couldn't figure out who it was, even though we knew we knew them! Thank you, I would've been wondering for a while. I should've just asked them but I didn't want to weird them out:)

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  3. Haha that's funny!! Ill mention it to them next time I see them.

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  4. Kai is so tall! Man! How did he get so big so quickly??

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  5. Looks like a fun outing for a family with two little boys!

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  6. We've considered doing this before too....glad you had fun. I am thinking my kids would be too old for it now. They do love the Stanley Park train and the little train at Confederation Park though! Funny about names too. I have 6 friends who have boys named Kai and one friend with a girl named Kaia. I had never heard the name 10 years ago. Same goes for my little ones. I hear the name Ashlyn everywhere now that I have one!

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  7. man, you MUST be busy! no post in soo many days!! :)

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