Day out with Thomas

Thomas made a special trip all the way from the Island of Sodor to Connersville, Indiana just to see me. Well, me and a couple thousand other kids.

I was very excited, but still waited very patiently for my turn to ride on one of Thomas' coach cars. Unfortunately, my genius of a mother chose to purchase tickets for one of the hottest days of the year thus far, so waiting in the sun was not easy.

But finally Thomas arrived.

When all of the other passengers had gotten off, the train conductor came out and yelled "All aboard!" (You will now frequently hear me yell this when any reference is made to trains.)

The train cars we rode on were very old and made before the days of AC, so we decided to move out of the direct sunlight shortly after this picture was taken to the other side of the train car.

I listened to all of the train conductor's instructions very closely, including the one about all adults being required to have an accompanying child. It's a good thing Mommy and Daddy thought to bring me along.

(On a side note, Mommy apologizes for the horrible quality of these pictures. She accidentally had her camera set on a very high ISO setting, which makes pictures grainy, so some of them are now in B&W.)

This is my "Mom, please stop taking my picture" face.

Finally the train got moving. This tends to be my typical expression during any activity on moving vehicle, carousel, etc. Any outsider observing would likely think I was indifferent to what was going on, but once the ride stops I start screaming that I want to go again.

After the train ride, there was an opportunity to take pictures with Thomas. Given the fact that my mother's photographic skills are severely lacking, we decided to purchase the picture offered by the professional photographers, which turned out much better than this one.

I also got to meet Sir Topham Hatt. Can you tell how excited I was?

They had all sorts of train themed activities for us kiddos, including this caterpillar-like ride.

Yet another example of my less than obvious enthusiasm while riding on a ride. In my defense, however, it was then end of a long 3 hours in the humid 90 + degree weather. That didn't stop me from having a great time though. Thanks Thomas! See you next year!

Take me out to the ballgame!

After a good nap, Mommy, Daddy, and I headed out to the Indians game. We're very lucky to have such a great, family-friendly baseball stadium in town.

We chose to skip the picnic area this time and get seats. I even got a new Indians hat to show off my team spirit.

Like most athletic events, they played a lot of music. And since my favorite dance move is the hot dog dance, there was a lot of hot dogging going on. Mom tried to capture this on camera, but I was not having it. The do it myself two-year old attitude has begun.

This is what happens when you leave it up to a two-year old capture the memories on camera.

Children's Museum

Mommy and Daddy both took the day off, so we decided to go to take a family trip to the Children's Museum. Since we're members and can come for just a few hours at a time, we try to visit different exhibits each time. Today we started out with the dinosaurs.

I did the dinosaur dig for the very first time. I was a little overwhelmed at first, but got the hang of it very quickly.


Future archeologist at work.


After the dinosaurs, we checked out the newest exhibit, Rock Stars, Cars, and Guitars. It technically wasn't open, but they had a sneak peek for members only.
They had a lot of cool cars on display. I was immediately drawn to this car because it is "Nolan's color" (translation: it's my favorite color).

However, this one was just my size.

(Fun fact: the kid-sized motorcycle and cars came from old carnival rides.)

Traverse City

We spent the Sunday after Daddy's marathon hanging out in downtown Traverse City. It is a very cute little town, and we all had a great time.

I immediately liked it. They even had a sign to welcome me.

They had a choo choo train down by the beach that I got to ride. I even got my own conductor's hat.

Chooo chooo!

Okay train, let's get this show on the road.

That's more like it.

It was a little too hot for the beach for a little guy like me, so we headed back to the water park.

Run Daddy, Run!!

Daddy ran his first full marathon in Traverse City this past Saturday. He ran it with Team in Training, and raised lots of money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Mommy and I went out to cheer him on along the course and surprised him with special t-shirts that we had made. Her's said "Run Todd Run" (no idea who this Todd guy is), and mine said "Go Daddy Go." We both had "Go Team" on the back.

I waited patiently at mile 19 for Daddy and cheered on the other runners. I followed Mommy's instructions and yelled "Go Team!" whenever I saw a purple shirt. I told the people without a purple shirt "Good Job Runners!"

The finally, I saw Daddy!! I was so excited to see him that I started jumping up and down and cheering. I think he was excited to see me too.

Wait Daddy! I'm coming!

Next it was on to mile 23, where Daddy was still looking strong. I got to meet some EMT's and check out an ambulance while waiting for him at this stop. When they had to turn on their sirens and leave I thought it was super neat. Mommy told me tried to explain that it really wasn't appropriate, but I still didn't get it.

Then finally Daddy met us at mile 26.

Only .2 miles to go Daddy!

Yay Daddy! You did it!

Awwwww, what a cute purple family.

Come on Daddy, you need a nap.

Great Wolf Lodge

Daddy ran a marathon in Traverse City, Michigan this past weekend. Thankfully (for my sake), there happens to be a Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. We stayed there for three full days!

Three days of Great Wolf Lodge meant that I got three days of WATER PARK!!!!

They have a structure called Fort Mackinzie, which is essentially a gigantic jungle gym with opportunities to get completely soaked with water at every angle. There are also opportunities to completely soak other people with water at every angle. There was a suspension bridge that I loved to run across. There was also a kid who perched himself above that bridge the entire weekend, dumping gallons of water on the heads of anyone who ran by. I found it to be hilarious. Mom did not have the same feelings, but she was a good sport.

Because Great Wolf Lodge is a hotel geared completely towards the entertainment of children, they had all sorts of other activities for little tikes such as me, including an arcade.

After my playing this game, mom is convinced that the authorities need to change the driving age to 18 in order to keep me off the road for as long as possible.

We left the big rig driving responsibilities to Dad.

At night they had story time, where kiddos like me can come a listen to stories in our PJ's.

I listened very well.

After story hour, I got to meet Great Wolf Lodge's newest mascot, Violet. You can see how thrilled I was. After meeting the king and queen of all fictitous characters (e.g., Mickey and Minnie) nothing quite compares.

Just to prove what a big boy I've become, Daddy had to get video of me going down the slides all by myself, which I did at least 200 times.