Day Out With Thomas 8/27/11

I thought we had only missed one year of Day Out With Thomas, but looking back through the blog I see that we haven't been since 2008! We only live about half an hour away from Union, IL where the Illinois Railway Museum is located. We've gone twice before, when Jack was about 2 1/2 and I was about 8 months pregnant with Jason, and in 2008 when Jack was three and Jason was almost one. There is a picture with me and Jack at this very spot from the 2008 visit:

The boys never get tired of the Railway Museum (or Thomas the Tank Engine). I thought we'd spend a few hours there, but ended up being there for eight hours. Well, there is a lot to see...the museum happens to be the largest rail museum in the country. We got to explore a bunch of restored trains and streetcars.

And we easily spent a couple hours in the blessedly air-conditioned model railroad building too. Thankfully, not all at once -- we kept ending up there on our treks back and forth across the grounds.
We took a 40-minute trip on a vintage commuter rail car.

And, of course, we rode in the passenger car pulled by Thomas himself. Here, I thwarted the $18 professional photograph and got a pretty good shot on my own. Hey, I have to save some money where I can, it was a pretty expensive day. But of course it was worth it. When we got home, I gave the boys a new Thomas play set that I had picked up for Jase's birthday, which I think perfectly capped off a great day. The next day, Jason told me that he was going to throw me a party. When I asked why, it's not my birthday, he replied "because you been so good to me yesterday." Awww.