Day Out With Thomas
It was a picturesque drive through the east Texas countryside for us this past Friday. The leaves were already beginning to break from their branches and shower down across the road in a slow, fluttering descent as we headed north. The sky was blue and a slight chill had begun to permeate the air - perfect weather! Our destination was the town of Rusk and the Texas State Railroad. Every October they welcome to the station our son's favorite engine - Thomas. After dark we arrived at our hotel and once settled into the room, headed to Ethan's choice for dinner - Pizza Hut. It was a great night, and Saturday brought us to the main event. The Day out with Thomas included a plethora of activities to occupy a younster's mind and imagination. Train tables, story-telling stages, a cinema screen with Thomas videos, hay rides, bounce houses, musical performers, a massive gift shop, coloring stations, temporary tatoos booth, and much more dotted the lanscape of the park. But the highlight was a thirty-minute train ride on everyone's favorite blue engine, Thomas. Ethan loved it, and the delight Summer and I had in seeing Ethan caught in wonder is beyond words. An excellent day and a blessing from the Lord. Here are a few pictures to capture in images what I can not fully describe in my prose.
In an effort to establish traditions and memories for our family, we seek to come up with activities that we can do together. Since it is fall and the weather has finally turned cool, we decided to pick up some pumpkins and carve them together. While Summer and I handled the knife work, Ethan had fun pulling out the inside of the pumpkins. We are by no means artists as you can tell from the photos, but a fun time was had by all. We displayed our work on the front porch after we finished so that others could enjoy. 
