Thomas and Percy's Halloween Party!

One of the downsides of DVRs is that the kids don't quite understand that if they're watching a program recorded six months ago, the ads are six months old, too.  Such was the case when they got excited to see Thomas at Roaring Camp Railroads over the summer and we had to explain that he had already come and gone.

So Grandma made sure we didn't miss their return for "Thomas and Percy's Halloween Party" in October.  I bought tickets and then successfully kept it a secret until the day before.  The kids were all excited, but Daniel was nearly bursting out of his skin.

Roaring Camp is in the Santa Cruz Mountains, about an hour and a half away, so we loaded into the van a little before ten for the drive.  The kids sang much of the way down and as we approached the parking lot, Daniel got excited just seeing a sign with Thomas's picture on it.  We unloaded and walked toward the covered bridge (which is identified as the shortest covered bridge in the United States ... shortest by length, not height) and on into the "Camp".  

We had seats on the 12:30 train, so we had about an hour after we picked up our tickets at will call.  

Our first stop was pictures with Sir Topham Hatt!  Because it was a Halloween party, the kids had brought their masks.  Other kids were in costumes, but luckily I'd been able to talk these guys out of them because it was quite hot out.  They wore their masks in line and then promptly forgot about them the rest of the day.  We didn't bother with the professional pictures, but I think you can see from the ones Uncle and I took just how excited Daniel was at meeting Thomas's boss, the head of the railways.

We walked back by way of the general store where we picked up some cold drinks and previewed the wide variety of Thomas toys available for sale.  It was just noon and the train was pulling in at the end of the 11:30 trip and Daniel was frantic to go get in line.  We were the second or third group back and he was champing at the bit to get on board.  The wait while the previous passengers de-boarded gave us a chance to learn that the left side of the train is the place to sit to see the best view.  We also checked the difference between the "coach" cars and the "canopy" cars and decided we'd made the right choice with "coach".  Caroline, for her part, was convinced that we had been assigned to Car 5 because the kids are 5 years old.

We climbed on board and settled in with our cold drinks and snacks from home and waited about fifteen minutes while the train filled up.

Max, Daniel, and I shared seats

Grandma, Uncle, and Caroline shared the one behind

Caroline peeking up ahead

Daniel's turn to look

As we pulled out for the short trip (Thomas pulls the train out for fifteen minutes and then they stop and Percy pulls the other way back into the station), Daniel was definitely the most excited, practically bouncing in his seat. The kids thought the San Lorenzo river down below was pretty exciting and the redwoods were pretty and they loved waving to all the hikers we passed along the way.

Finally, at the end, I got Max to do a leaning out picture.

Posing with Thomas

After the ride, we went to the store and bought entirely too many Thomas toys and then it was time to head to the "Imagination Station" tent for activities.  The kids were able to decorate train-shaped cookies, get temporary tattoos and face paint, claim mini pumpkins from a little "patch", color pictures, jump in a jumpy house, and listen to story time or watch a juggling or magic show.  Down the hill, there were some motorized ride-on Thomas trains for the kids to tool around in on little oval tracks as well as some pedal-powered tractors.  Caroline opted for those while the boys watched the magic show, but then she came back.

Max is decorating a Percy cookie while Daniel works on Thomas

Batman was there for moral support

Caroline was super focused on hers

Max got to blow the bugle to start the juggling show

Everyone got a turn at the end spinning a soccer ball on a stick

Our last stop was for lunch - chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, hamburger, corn dogs, and fries a plenty.  The food was very good - and we're fairly confident it wasn't just the heat and hunger talking... 

Pumpkin Daniel

Scare-Max

Caroline not-so-in-distress (but SO in-dis-DRESS)

SCaroline

Four hours after we arrived, we made our way out to the car to head home.  We'd offered everyone bathroom breaks - Grandma and Caroline went, Daniel and Uncle went.  And Max consented to pee on a tree, though he refused to go to the bathroom.  And then when we were safely ensconced in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Highway 17, Max announced that he had to poop.  Max does not like freeway driving and he refuses to poop on foreign potties without his potty seat, so this announcement meant we were in for about seventy minutes of whining.  

And, following form, Max started to get angry, announcing that he needed to go potty so we needed to go home.  Now.  The simple logic that we couldn't make that happen any faster than it already was was meaningless to him.  This continued, on and on.  Until, at some point, he began to get silly.  He told us not to laugh at him and to "shut up" and when we asked who he was talking to, he would refer to us as "you, the one in the animal shirt" (Uncle) or "you, the lady who is driving" (me) or "lady in the white shirt" (grandma).  At one point he said he was really mad at "someone with a beard".  I don't remember any of the specifics, but I do remember laughing for nearly half an hour.

Then, of course, when we got home, he didn't need to poop at all.