On Monday morning, nine out of ten Facebook Statuses in my feed were bemoaning a flooded basement, a flooded back yard, a flooded street, or a flooded everything.
Sunday was slightly moist around here.
And of course, that would be the day we had picked out to visit Thomas the Train.
It was the last day he was to be in Birmingham, so we couldn’t change our minds.
But Thomas was a non-negotiable – rain or worse. Because Noah has asked to return, nearly on a daily basis, since last year’s visit. It is pretty much his crowning achievement from the age of two.
“I REMEMBER riding on Thomas!!”, he said, at least a dozen times, as if he knew he shouldn’t actually be able to remember things from being two. “I REMEMBER getting the bracelet!!”
…because red Paper Bracelets are the best part of any event.
The rain did not lessen the palpability of Noah’s ecstasy.
Nothing could.
Thomas had gotten some work done since last year, and actually had a moving mouth and eyes, and cheeks so soft and realistic that when they moved, they looked rather eerily like we were in the cartoon. Making me wonder why no one has bought a small island and turned it into a Sodor Theme Park.
We skipped all of the other rather wet Thomas-y activities and went immediately to the awning to wait for our ride, which didn’t seem to upset the children at all.
And, thanks to the rain, the train was nearly all ours.
Noah got some quality time with the Conductor,
And after spending much time silently staring,
From every angle,
Being as still as he’s been for at least a month,
He rewarded me for making his dreams come true by making my dreams come true – and actually looking in the general(ish) direction of my camera for a whole. Thirty. Seconds.
He even let me see a quick glimpse of his true excitement,
And wanted to take a train selfie.
We all left calling it a success,
And now begins another 365 days of the question, “Is it time to go see Thomas yet?”
how long does Thomas stay in your area?.. … my kids saw this and now THEY want to go visit… right. well we will just slip a visit to thomas in when we stop by alabama…. sheesh… not sure we are going to even be in North America at this point!
OH MY GOODNESS>>>>> we are going to be home in North America when he comes to our city!!! My sis just bought tickets for us to go!!! My kiddos will be soooooo excited! WOOT WOOT! Thanks Rachel for telling me (us) about this!
I’m so excited for y’all!! I can’t wait to hear all about it.
I have a little Thomas fan too! I think you should patent your Sodor theme park idea. That could be Gold!
If only I had 150 million dollars to make it happen….
It would be amazing, though!
It’s so cool that you guys get to share the experience with him of his favorite tv show coming to life. I know I would have been beside myself if I had gotten to see my tv heroes–Captain Kangaroo or Fonzie–in real life when I was little..
I just checked and found out that Thomas is coming to our area in September. We are already planning to trip to see him! Aria will totally flip.
Last year we went to the Oregon zoo in the rain. The kids were fine with the rain and place was empty so we got to see the new baby elephant frolicking without holding the kids over a crowd, The other adults were done with the rain before I and the kids were so we ironically didn’t get to see the indoor monkeys, but I would go in the rain again just because of the lack of crowds.
Your zoo is obviously much more popular than ours….I’m not familiar with this idea of “zoo crowds.”
That’s great! You’ll love it. The train ride is awesome!
I’m not sure why it made my comment a reply…
Chattanooga isn’t that far away. Y’all could see him again before the end of the month :) lol. I hope the girls will enjoy it half as much as Noah did.
Noah would adore going back. But it’s good for him – it’s his only true measurement of the length of a year.
Love the excited face and Ali’s fancy dress. We still have never seen a Thomas episode around here and I’m not in any hurry to introduce yet another thing to my girls. Maybe if I ever have a boy we’ll do Thomas. :)
……. you were only a few miles from me……those little ones just love THOMAS…. mine loved JAMES….. becuase that is his name… ( not after James the engine ) but his grandfather.. Now he has graduated to model trains so we get to attend Model Trains Shows when they are close.
Oh my goodness, boys and their trains! This will be my spring as my boy is now two. I’m sure he will “remember” it too! Those expressions on your guys face are too priceless!
Reading your old posts about This mad to get ready for our first trip this weekend. Guess what. They do have an island of sodor theme park now! It’s near Boston. Sooooo convenient right?