Today.

Today we celebrated Alaina's official birthday by spending a Day Out With Thomas! This year's visit was much different than last year's. I remembered having to get up super early to get to our train last year, so I bought the tickets for an hour later this year. Last night was one of my latest nights ever at the Cheese, so I was a little sluggish this morning, to say the least. We enjoyed a nice breakfast as a family, not really paying much attention to the clock in my half-asleep state, so we got on the road a little later than planned. To make a long story short, a panicked phone call to Mary Ann about road turns in Heber allowed us to make our train by about two minutes. Last year, we arrived at the crack of dawn, before the crowds, before the lines, before Sir Topham hat was on his lunch break, so we had our picture taken with Thomas without a wait and we had more time to soak it in. This year was a little less magical, so I tried to focus on pics of the kids instead of the kids with -- I'm trying to fight my propensity to avoid crowds, since I already have enough traits that make me an 80-year-old woman in a 25-year-old's body. I try to justify my dislike of them with the idea that I battle crowds at work every day and I just want some breathing room on my days off, but let's face it, I'm just a homebody. It's a good thing we have busy Connor to get us out of the house, or else Alaina, Anthony, and I would be hanging out all day in our pajamas.






I will be one upset Mama when Alaina stops asking me to hold her. I wanted a picture of the two of us again, a la last year's photo, but she is now refusing to look at the camera. Tickles fail to make her smile, either, she just goes limp. :)


After the train ride, we got balloon animals for the kids. Connor requested a blue doggy and Alaina wanted a pink butterfly. The balloon artist had me blow on the gray balloon while she inflated it, to make it appear like I was inflating it from the outside, and Alaina just couldn't figure out why it didn't work when she tried it.


After a James tattoo for Connor and a Percy tattoo for Alaina, we road the motorcart up and down the track, then Daddy mentioned getting some cotton candy. The kids thought he said, "hot candy", so hot candy was dually requested.




The stuff can be a bit pesky, though. :)


And a happy boy to round out this post. He's been so sweet lately, and I just love how his "picture smile" swallows up his eyes. Anthony and I spent time standing side by side at the mirror trying to mimic this face. In our family, the traits that we pass down seem to be pretty specific...Connor got X from me, Alaina got X from him, but this smile is a perfect blend of us.