Gabe's Day Out With Thomas

Daddy and Gabe in front of THOMAS THE TRAIN!

My Gabe is all boy. Except for when his older sister gets a hold of him and paints his nails, which he thinks is funny. He, like his older brother, Bryce, has loved trains since he was still a baby. Living close to train tracks all his life has made it easier. Naturally, Gabe has fallen head over heals for Thomas the train. He loves his Take Along trains, the TV shows, the DVDs, and anything else that has to do with Thomas. Luckily, so does Kevin, who is our friends' little boy, who is also 4 years old. When we get together, we never have to worry about entertaining them, because as parents, we've been trained to buy all the fun things that the folks at Thomas the Tank Engine have on the market. This makes it much easier for us grown-ups to have our own fun, knowing our sons are either glued to the TV watching Thomas, or plastered to the floor pulling trains along the tracks, whichever home we're in.

Gabe in front of Shining Time Station

Our friends, Mark and Helen (let's be honest, it's always the woman that arranges for the dads to go do stuff for the kids), were kind enough to buy 4 tickets to go see Thomas in Heber at the "Day out with Thomas" event, and let Dayne and Gabe go with Mark and Kevin. Once a year, the Heber Valley RR, otherwise known as the "Heber Creeper", transforms its station into Shining Time Station, complete with Thomas and Sir Topham Hat. I made the mistake of telling Gabe he was going to see Thomas and ride on him a week before he was actually going. He kept asking, "Can I go see Thomas NOOOOOOWWWWW???" Their train tickets were bought for May 24th, departure time 9:45 a.m. I'm so glad it didn't rain on them! They had a blast, and neither one of them wanted to come home (Kevin and Gabe, that is).

Kevin and Gabe waiting to get on the train

Finally! On Thomas the train, waiting for departure

Here are a couple other cool things they had set up for the kids to do and see at Shining Time...