It’s Train-tastic!

(note: If you get the title reference, then my condolences are with you on your Chuggington-obsessed little one. But hey, look on the bright side: at least it’s not Yo Gabba Gabba!)

On the first Sunday of every month, the Southern California Live Steamers Railroad club gets together at a local park and runs their trains for the public. Dave and I have known about this for about 2 years now, but this was the first month that Dave or I actually remembered about it in time to actually make it there!

We knew that Jack would love it, as obsessed as he is with all things Train, and so we called my parents and had them meet us there so that they could share the day with us! Lucky for us, my sister and Baby Luke happened to be able to make it, too!

We got there and stood in a very long line, and Dave threw Jack up on his shoulders so that he could see the trains.

By the time my parents got there we were halfway through the line, and we decided that rather than have them cut the line and join us, they should get in line, too! That way when we were done, Jack could join them when it was their turn! What we didn’t know, though, was that we were going to be lucky enough to get on a train that was going to take the Long Way Around

We hopped on the train and took off! It was a very interesting ride! As we were going out there, we noticed that there was only one track! How were we going to get back? Soon, we discovered how. We got to the end and the train stopped. They uncoupled the engine, switched a track, and backed the engine onto a track that was attached to a semi circle. They dragged the track along the circle until it was facing the other way, switched the track again, and backed the engine up to our train and reattached it. Then, they had us all stand up and turn around! It was kind of cool, and a little silly. Jack love it, though, because he got to watch the engine close up!

When we finally got back to the area with the depot, we rejoined the rest of the trains in going around the track! We ran under the tunnel, around through the “forest” and back around to the depot where grandma, grandpa, and Baby Luke were waiting for their turn!

And then… we kept going! And when we got back to the depot, we still kept going! And after we got back to the depot a third time, we kept going again!

Apparently the Man In Charge was on our train, and he didn’t want to sit and wait, so he kept having us go around and around until all the other trains had left the depot. Finally, after going on the Long Track plus 4 times around the Short Track, we pulled back up to the depot for good! When we got there, we tossed Jack over the gate so that he could ride with my parents and Baby Luke (who had been waiting so long for us that they had been letting many people go ahead of them so that Jack wouldn’t miss out on riding with them!), and he got to go again!

After the four of them got back to the depot (they weren’t lucky enough to get to ride the Long Track, or even go around the Short Track multiple times), we headed over to the picnic tables for a quick lunch, and then we headed over to the playground!

Luke had a blast on the swings! Amy knelt in front of him, and every time the swing went torwards her, he cracked up!

Jack and Dave had a lot of fun on the slide! Jack even persuaded Dave to go up and slide down a few times, too!

After playing on the playground, we decided to go check out the newest feature of the park- the treehouse! None of us had seen it before since it had been put in recently, and Jack thought it was so much fun to run in circles around the whole thing!

And Samuel? Our sweet littlest one was sleeping this whole time, snug as a bug in a rug.

We can’t wait to come back and ride the trains again!