Friday, December 18, 2009

Chugga, Chugga, Choo, Choo!!

Breaking news - we're expecting 12-24 inches of snow tonight - and we have at least 6 already. Yikes!!


It's no secret this year that the only thing Daniel wants is a big train (as if he doesn't have any!). So this year we thought it might be fun to take Daniel on a real train ride. We were able to combine a trip to Nashville to visit my grandmother with a ride on the North Pole Express Train with several other adoptive families.

We met Carey and Norm and their two children (private blog), Adrienne and Owen and Carrie and S. to ride the train together. The kids had so much fun listening to the conductor read a story, getting two gifts from the elves and telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

Daniel spent the first 1/2 an hour just looking out the window watching the signals as we crossed over roads and talking train talk. He loves talking about the couplings and whether or not we were in a steam engine or a diesal engine - (Thomas the Train talk! - Before long we were assured by Daniel that Bert was our front engine and Arry was our back engine!)

Visiting with my grandmother was nice. They had open house at her place of residence and we were able to visit with some additional family and enjoy meeting lots of my grandmother's friends. Santa came to visit during the open house to and Daniel happened to be sitting in Troy's lap. Well, when Santa came over Daniel kept repeatedly telling Santa that "This is my daddy, This is my daddy." Santa played along and asked if "Daddy had been good." Daniel assured him yes and when Santa asked Daniel what he should bring Daddy, Daniel paused and then said (much to the audiences laughter) "A Great Big Train!"
Daniel loves his great grandmother "CC" and we were glad to visit with her.

Here are a few fun photos from our time!

We never get bored in the car on an 8 plus hour drive!


Big boys on the train!


Presents from the Elves!



A Visit from Santa on the train!



No trip is complete without a visit to Bass Pro in Nashville!


4 comments:

Amy said...

Boys and their trains! My hubby is under the tree as I type putting up our train. Actually, Hermie our Christmas Elf will get all the credit for doing this.

As for the snow YIKES!!! It's coming our way but definitely not that much. Because of it, my parents are afraid to babysit tomorrow night (they live near Philly and traveling to our home) for my hubby's Christmas party. So I'm staying home and having my own Christmas party (there are no babysitters out there).

Enjoy the snow!!! Amy

Craig and Phyllis said...

What a fun weekend, and especially being able to see the other families, too! (I have been watching their blogs and not seen new postings for awhile).

We are again on the western side of the storm and are only going to get 2-4 inches. Which will probably mean we will get nothing! I can only hope for some good snow.

Daniel sure does know his trains! Our boys know cars, your's trains!

Enjoy your snow storm! I'll have some hot chocolate and think of you.

www.adventureswithaidan.org said...

Snow and more snow, eh?? We're getting slammed by this storm. . .loved the train ride idea! I've been thinking of taking Aidan on a ride from Harpers Ferry (15 minutes from our house) to Union Station in DC (1/2 hour in the other direction). Or go to New York City for an overnight. Boys and their Trains!!

Kami said...

I am really behind on my blog reading! I loved the pictures of Daniel playing in the snow! So fun! The train ride looked like fun! We went on one in our area, but we didn't have a big table like that! J loves trains too and is all about Thomas the Train.., what is it with little boys and trains?