Thomas the Train 2011!!!

Yep, we made it to our "Day Out with Thomas" today! Although it did rain on our parade, it did not rain out our fun! It was pretty dang cold and wet, and although that was a bummer, there was one positive side to the weather- it made it practically empty compared to last year. The lines were so short at each station there was almost no waiting for anything!!

Maletch is so funny, although he knew about this event because he had been counting down the days literally for over 3 months.... he said that he wanted to be surprised and that he did not want us to tell him on the day until we get there (just like last time)..... SO, I decided when we had counted down to 12 more days, that I would quit telling the exact number of days anymore, and just say, "Yep, pretty soon..." ... WELL that little bugger KNOWS how to count down from 12 all by himself because last night at bedtime, he says, "Mommy are we going to go see Thomas?" I said, "Yeah, pretty soon, a few more days." He said, "A few more days mommy, or ONE more day? It is only one more night-night and THIS is the night-night, right?" I didn't want to lie to him (it really broke my heart) BUT he said he wanted to be surprised, so I fibbed and said, "No honey, we aren't going to see Thomas tomorrow, we are going to do some errands though"... (and I made up a bunch of stuff, hoping that would distract him if I kept talking, plus it was a built in excuse for where we would be "driving" in the morning). I could tell this was confusing to him because he HAD kept track!!
I don't know how the heck he does that-- BUT he has done this to us so many times in the past with Disneyland- we did a similar thing like let him know in advance that it was coming so he could look forward to it- but like 2-3 days before I would stop saying the number of days (not to surprise him with those trips, ONLY to make sure he would go to sleep and not stay up all excited) WELL he had figured out how to count down (and keep track) of 2-3 days by himself and would ask the same questions the night before--- so I THOUGHT I had learned my lesson- so with Thomas - 12 days - I thought that was plenty of days to lose track of for a 3-yr-old, but NOPE!! Holy heck?!?!?!
Anyway, so we fibbed and tried to play it off as good as we could, and apparently we were pretty convincing because even though he initially DID know (on his own)- he did seem surprised when we got there (only because his mom and dad were fibbing) BUT, he was super happy that we did that.
I am glad he appreciated our "trick we played", lol, cuz I really hated doing it- but NOW John and I don't know how to let him know about something in advance so that he can look forward to it, without him always knowing the night before-- cuz you CAN'T tell him about anything coming, without him wanting a specific- he WILL ask you how many more days, and even when I have tried saying things like "about 2 weeks", he always asks, "How many days is that?" LOL! How he keeps track without a calendar, I really don't understand??? I have even tried telling him it was one day later (adding one day to the actual number of days) if it is really 6, then just say 7 from the beginning, but he heard me tell John the plan apparently, cuz he 'called me out' on that too, hehe! Man, what a dilemma!

A few details/highlights/cute moments:

I chose the last departure time (train ride) of the day so that we could spend the entire start of the day doing the different activities. Maletch lasted all day without a nap, and without getting fussy- what a trooper! This way too, the whole day was a 'build up' to the best part- our ride on Thomas, and boy was he looking forward to it all day. He was so excited when we finally boarded, announcing, "All aboard" and blowing his train whistle... we got half way through our journey and the poor boy fell asleep, hehe! I really couldn't believe my eyes- but he was THAT tired, poor boy, he missed part of the train ride! Well, thank goodness he was awake for the first half, and then we made sure we woke him up before we got off (opposed to carry him) because I didn't want him to feel like he missed the end and didn't say "goodbye." I don't think he realizes he nodded off for a few minutes, and let's not anybody tell him, hehe.

After Maletch got his Thomas tattoo, as we were leaving the 'Tattoo parlor' (haha) he stopped and said, "Wait, Sariah didn't get a tattoo, we need to get one for Sariah!" My heart melted that he was looking out for his baby sister. He is always such a sweet boy, but when he shows thoughtfulness to her, it is always so touching to me. I think it was even more so since we were in a place that was so FUN, it would be easy to 'forget' to be thoughtful of others (like be thinking about the next fun thing we were going to do), but he continued to be thoughtful of her all day. He wanted her to get everything that he got. As far as the tattoo, although we hadn't planned on getting one for Sariah, hehe, of course we went right back in. Maletch said, "I think Sariah wants to have a Percy tattoo." That was a great choice, and Percy is what she got!
He always wants to share every thing he has with other kids (no matter where we are) and today was no different, right down to the bag of chips he was eating. "Mommy, I want to share my chips with that boy over there." Throughout the day, several of the employees had heard his thoughtful comments/gestures, and many were giving him special treatment, hehe! It is a pleasure to take him places and always has been- and I am so grateful for that!

I love their Thomas store! I scored a lot of cool Thomas merchandise again this time (exclusive Thomas stuff only available to event-goers). I picked up a few scrapbooking items, photo frames, cute Thomas clothes, as well as a few Christmas gifts for him!

We had a special bag of Thomas gifts for him when we got home to top off the perfect day! There were many goodies in the bag, including toys, videos, and other misc Thomas items- he loved everything!


I am just starting this post, BUT I have been working on the slideshow for what feels like FOREVER... the pictures are taking WAY too long to load (my computer must have something VERY wrong with it), so I still don't have all of the pics on here, nor are the ones that I have organized, but I threw some in a slideshow for now and I will just have to work on this later (right now I need a break). There should be more pics, and better pics later today/tomorrow.
I am so MAD at my computer because what should have taken 2 hours (to download, edit, and upload to internet) has taken 15 hours and I am still not finished!! UGGH!!! I don't have time to diagnose and fix my computer- dang thing- I just want to finish uploading photos!

Here is a "sneak peek" thanks for stopping by!
Much more coming..........