A Day Out With Thomas

When I saw a posting on one of my facebook groups about 'A Day Out With Thomas' in Squamish, I immediately started looking into it.  Matthew is right in the thick of being IN LOVE with anything Thomas (and Kayla, too), so it was a "do it now or never" sort of thing for us.  The only thing holding me back was the cost.  The tickets were just over $25 each, so it was going to cost us over $100 to go as a family (Nathan is under two, so free luckily!).  I'm typically quite frugal/stingy, but I knew the kids would love it...so we did it.  We booked tickets for the 10:30 Thomas ride, so we had to be there around 9:30am.  We left the house at 8:00am and started the over-hour-long drive to Squamish.  At the one-hour mark Kayla complained of her stomach not feeling good (she struggles with getting carsick on long trips) and I wasn't feeling to great either (I was getting carsick, too), so we made a quick stop at Murrin Provincial Park so we could breathe some fresh air.

We ended up arriving at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park around 9:40am.  As we were unloading out of the car in the parking lot, we heard a train whistle and saw the train bars starting to come down.  We looked down the track, and saw the 9:30am Thomas ride coming right toward us.  Matthew's face lit up - Thomas!  He immediately unzipped his hoodie to show Thomas his Thomas t-shirt, and they all waved to the conductor.  It was the best moment of the day, for me.  They were all so happy.

We enjoyed hearing a Thomas story, had the kids' picture taken in front of Thomas, and went on our 25-minute ride in a passenger car being pulled by Thomas.

After that, we had some snacks, and then Jon hung out with Nathan while I took Matthew and Kayla to write a letter to a train of their choosing (Matthew chose Thomas, Kayla chose Rosie).  We then delivered the letter to the mail car, in the appropriate train's mail slot.  Apparently the kids will get a letter back!

We then headed to line up for the bouncy castle and browsed the gift shop.  All of the Thomas stuff was so tempting...but so overpriced.  We (I) actually resisted buying anything.  Although, truth be told, if the kids had actually asked/whined for something I probably would have caved.  They are so good with being told that something costs too much  money :).

Our last stop was the 'Imagination Station'.  The kids met Sir Topham Hatt (Nathan cried as soon as we even got close to him!), played on train tables, coloured a picture, and got a (temporary) tattoo.  By that time it was 12:45pm, so we decided to call it a day and pick up some lunch on our way home.  Within a minute of being in the car, Nathan was fast asleep, so we scrapped the idea of eating in a fast-food place and picked up some muffins from Tim Horton's to eat in the car while driving.

We did have to deal with some end-of-the-long-weekend traffic, but were home (at my parents') by 2:45pm so it wasn't too bad.  All in all, it was a good day.