The REAL Thomas the Train

The first day we were in the mountains, we drove an hour north of Maggie Valley, to Bryson City, NC to go tubing.  I haven't blogged about that yet, because the only picture I have from tubing is going to be used in describing what happened to my face-  which I still fully intend on doing, but since it happened at the end of our trip, we haven't gotten to that yet.

I do realize it's October and I'm blogging events from August, but I don't want these pictures to disappear into hard drive oblivion, so I'm just going through them (even though I'm wearing white shorts in these pictures that I'm blogging today, but would never actually WEAR white shorts seeing how it's after labor day.  These things are important, you know. )

Back to Bryson City.

We went tubing.  But this post isn't about tubing.

On the way home, we had to stop because there was a train crossing the road.  We sat there, in total excitement, watching a TRAIN with all the kids, when, lo and behold, when it finished pulling into the station, it was THOMAS THE TRAIN!!!

We were flippin' out.

Thomas comes to the Bryson City Great Smoky Mountians Railroad   once a year and we just so happened to happen upon the weekend when he was there, and just so happened to be coming through town when he was crossing the street.

I love how the Lord orchestrates stuff like that, just "happening!" :)

We called and got details and decided to go back Sunday afternoon so the kids could ride on Thomas.

It was an experience.

He really is pretty cool looking...



I shall entitle this picture:

DEVASTATION NUMBER ONE

We drove up to the station in attempts of making the 10:45 train, but as we arrived, it was pulling away from the station, and Benson, not understanding that Thomas takes a new group of kids up the mountain every 45 minutes, thought he had missed his singular opportunity in life to have the chance to ride the real Thomas.  Hence: Devastation.



When Thomas did appear back at the station, there was exuberance, elation, excitement that we got actually board the REAL THOMAS THE TRAIN.

Yall, this is a big deal, in case you can't tell.



And Benson had his own agenda and he was not interested in smiling for the camera....



And when I say, "not interested"  I mean it in the most extreme sense of the word.

And I give you:

DEVASTATION NUMBER TWO:

In which Benson is refusing to even look at the camera and I am threatening his life that if he doesn't "pull it together" I'm going to take him to the caboose and wear his little caboose out!

This is the fun part about having a three year old with a mind of his own...



Once we approached the end of our ride (it just goes up the mountains and then reverses to the station) we stopped on a tall bridge, and I let him spit look over the edge of the train and all was well with the world again...



Onward!!!

(This moment also ended in reprimanding (and by reprimanding, I mean a trip to the caboose) due to the fact that he was running along the tracks (real tracks) laughing at me telling him to stop, with no regard to the fact these real tracks crossed over real streets with real cars.  It's a wonder I didn't have a heart attack.)



After our visit to the caboose, the other cousins joined us for a caboose pic.



And then we went the length of the train, from caboose to engine in order to get a picture with Thomas.

And I give you:

DEVASTATION NUMBER THREE:

I honestly don't know what the actual cause to this particular devastation was... we parents aren't always privy to this information.  But I will tell you that I thought it was pretty hilarious that, during this photo opt,  a random man from the crowd, whom we had never met, and was rather large and sweaty and um, unkempt, approaches grandmama and the grandkids and starts trying to talk them into smiling.
Strange people's assumption at being able to handle a situation better than the parents never ceases to amaze me.



We did end up getting this one with Benson and Thomas.

Maybe he just didn't want to share the stage.

Who knows.



It really was, contrary to the varying times of devastation, fun to get to see the real Thomas the Train.

I will say, that we all went home and took a good long NAP!