When I was eleven I took a train ride to Denver Colorado with my Grandma Ricord.
We were headed to visit my uncle Clay and aunt Lana and their family, who lived in Longmont.
There was beautiful scenery outside the entire trip, it seemed, including seeing a wild cat chase a rabbit along the snowy banks of an icy river. Then when I moved to Chicago in my mid-twenties for grad school, the El (elvated train) became a part of my life. It was a love/hate relationship: loved the convenience and quickness (most of the time); hated the motion sickness and crowds.
This year for Memorial Day, I wanted my family to do something special together since Sharee and her kids were in town. For quite a while I had been thinking about A Day Out With Thomas up in Heber since kids love Thomas the Tank Engine and most are fascinated with trains. All my nieces and nephews, along with most of their parents, Mom and Dad, Nancy, and Cousin Dan, joined me on this excursion. My personal opinion: Thomas was a tut with nothing to toot about! The ride was slow and the scenery ordinary; all the other activities were mediocre and crowded to boot. But we were together and had fun despite the lack of fascination for me personally.
Thomas in person (Sir Toppam Hat was there too)
Afterward, we made use of a nearby park where we ate lunch and played on the playground.
Dima very excited to hike, though he had no idea what that entailed.
We took lots and lots of rests, encouraging Dima to find the next number at the upcoming switchback to make sure all the numbers were in order.
It worked - we made it to number 6 (awesome since after number 1 he wanted to go back to the car!)
Maddie had a fun ride with mom!
Checkin' out the city below...
one Dima step at a time...
cute baby Moozoos!
