Jonah's Big Day

I don't know exactly when a person's memory starts sticking...Jonah is 2 1/2. I hope it's now because yesterday we went to an event called "Day Out With Thomas." It was awesome!! The main feature was the ride on a real steam engine train led by Thomas the Tank Engine, of course, but there were other activities such as videos, puppet shows, face painting and tatoos. Jonah was the most excited! His favorite train is Percy. He got a Percy tatoo on each hand. Noah got Thomas painted on his arm.

When we first arrived at Roaring Camps Railroads, which hosted the event, I heard train(s) before I saw them. Also, it wasn't too crowded as I have heard some people tell me about the same event in other parts of the country. This kind of reminded me of a company picnic set up; food area, activity booths, lots of grassy areas to sit around, and a couple of buildings, one of which housed the large gift shop. Then I saw some trains. Generic-looking trains. Where was Thomas?!! The first thing I said to James was I hoped it wasn't all just looking at Thomas stuff and then we get on a generic train for a ride; that would be so sad! I don't know if the boys would have known the difference, but I would have... Then I saw him: Thomas! A real Thomas the Tank Engine pulling into the station. (Yay!) We boarded our train at and went on a beautiful 30 min. ride around the Santa Cruz mountains. Along the way we saw hikers, and bicyclists on trails near the train tracks as well as people enjoing the river down below.

After our train ride, we went to the gift shop and bought a t-shirt for Jonah and headed out. It was the right time. On the way to the car we saw many little kids heading to that meltdown phase...nap time. Jonah nodded off before we were out of the parking lot. Happy day for him!

The fun wasn't over!

After dinner, bathing the boys and putting them in pjs, we loaded them in the car again and headed over to Pacific Grove. The week before we were driving around there and I noticed a good number of homes had paper lanterns hanging around the exterior. I was very curious. It first reminded me of the Chinese Lantern Festival -- but that is sometime in the fall...so I got on the Internet and found out that Pacific Grove holds some kind of event that borrows from the CLF. I didn't care much for the details, but the most important thing I saw was a fireworks display was going to be held at the end of the festival. All right! I felt we had short-changed the boys at the Fourth of July. I wasn't able to find information on firework shows, except for the main one down at the Fisherman's Wharf -- and we didn't want to deal with the crowds. So we stayed home. Then we noticed we were able to see the tippy-tops of firework displays held nearby -- where?! -- so the boys just stood at the living room window to watch, the whole time asking if we could "go there."

In Pacific Grove James got the best parking space - the last one on the street right next to the beach/bike path. I thought we'd just sit in the car to watch, but James suggest we go out and take a walk until the show started. Just as we got Jonah buckled into the stroller, the first firecracker went off! It was really good timing. The boys were very happy and loved every moment. All the way home Jonah kept saying "Boom!" and they'd look at each other and laugh their head off.

Big day...I know I'll remember the boys' reactions for a long time. Next morning we work up at 9 a.m. and church service starts at 10!!!!!