Last weekend we all went to a “Day out with Thomas” event. I’ve posted a couple pages of pictures from the outing which you can get to from the home page.

We got tickets for the event out four months ago, I think Jen discovered it on line when she was surfing the Thomas web site with Alex one afternoon and we got tickets. We didn’t tell Alex about it at the time so it was a big surprise when we told him a couple of days before we actually went. It’s a big outdoor carnival where they have trains set up for the kids to play with, entertainers singing Thomas songs, and of course the reason we are all there for is a ride on a real Thomas the Tank Engine. Of course it wouldn’t be complete without a gift shop stocked full with every imaginable Thomas train ever.

It turns out the Thomas really isn’t much more then a hollow rail car constructed to look exactly like the real Thomas. I don’t know what I was expecting but I thought it was going to be a genuine steam engine. It’s set up so that Thomas is at the front of the train followed by a couple of passenger cars, and on the end is an old fashion diesel engine which pushes the whole thing out and bank.

Even though I felt a little cheated Alex thought it was the greatest thing ever and we got to get a family picture in front of Thomas which he now has up on the bulletin board in his room.

When we were all done we had to drive over the train line that Thomas was parked at and Alex said that he wanted to see Thomas one last time.

“Well, we’ll be able to see him if he hasn’t left on another trip yet” I told him. We then rounded the corner and Thomas was still waiting as passengers were still getting on the train.

“See, Thomas wouldn’t leave me” Alex told us from the back seat.