All Aboard!

Saturday morning we got to take Eva on her first train ride! A friend passed along tickets to Grapevine's Day with Thomas the Tank Engine and part of that included a ride with Thomas on the Grapevine Historic Railroad.

We kept this surprise a secret from Eva until right before we did it. There is truly something wonderful about knowing that you have a great big surprise that you are about to bless your child with that is about to light up their world. As we were driving to Grapevine I kept thinking about how I LOVE blessing Eva with good surprises, and how I feel like God is the same way with us. I think that as our Father, God must take such delight in working in our lives in ways that He knows will surprise and bless us. I sure hope God has some great surprises planned for my life!

When we had almost arrived in Grapevine Eva suddenly pipes up, "Ride choo-choo?" from the backseat. Umm, what?!?! How did she figure this out??? We had been careful to spell the word T-R-A-I-N and its not like she knew that the train was that way or anything. We played it off like we might get to ride a train one day but still didn't tell her what was going to happen. Then when we were standing in line and the train pulled up we said, "SURPRISE!!! You get to ride a train TODAY!" She was pretty excited :)

Her first real ride! We've ridden those dinky 4 car "trains" that they have at community celebrations but nothing they are nothing like this.

As the ride took off we kept talking about what we would see and how exciting everything was. I was also thankful that the train was heated because it was a chilly morning.

 "Yyyoook, Daddy!" She liked to point out things she saw out the window. I think her favorite was the random trash pile in the woods along with way. Go figure. The train ride took you through Grapevine, out east towards George Bush highway and then back to the station.

After the ride there were lots of fun activities for the kids to do. She got a Thomas tattoo on her hand that is still there 3 days later.  

They had a petting zoo. Since we had just been to a petting zoo in Fort Worth the day before I wasn't sure how excited she would be but she really liked it. This time she could actually be in the fenced in area with the animals. 

The train table area had lots of tracks with different trains for kids to play with. There is no room in my house for a train table, but they are fun! 

Bubbles! What kids isn't enthralled with these? Who cares that we have them on our back porch all the time? These are special bubbles because there are other kids there to enjoy them with you. 

"Bye Thomas! Bye choo-choo!" As soon as we left and were back to the car she told us that she wanted to ride again. Haha, maybe one day sweet girl.