First Passenger Train Ride

James loves trains. He has been on train rides before at Disneyland:

Travel Town:

Little Steamers:

But on the West Coast, there have not been a lot of chances to experience passenger rail. That changed this weekend with the opening of SMART. We took an afternoon trip from the Sonoma County Airport to downtown San Rafael and back. Standing room only, most of the way. Luckily, we arrived early enough and got seats.

What an exciting was to spend a Monday. Here's to more train trips!

Sonoma Field Trip

Guess where we went yesterday?

Yes! Traintown in Sonoma.

We had a lovely "field trip," as James called it. The weather was beautiful and after the first hour or so, the kids really got excited about running around and exploring. The drive through Sonoma Valley was absolutely gorgeous.

Mr. Magnetic

I walked into the kitchen one morning this summer and found James preparing to dash his wooden trains through the air and against the wall. He was frustrated that he could not push them together. I showed him the round magnets at each end of the engine and train cars and told him were two round, different magnetic poles on each train, one positive and one negative. I demonstrated that trying to connect two positives or two negatives would push the cars apart.

"So," I explained, "if they won't go together, turn one car around to the other magnet, and they'll both snap together."

This is what happened for the next 15 minutes:

and:

and:

Why couldn't my sciences classes have been more like this?

SOOC Sunday: He is Playing

James is playing this morning. He found two different toys and started to play with them. I am cheering silently inside: "Yes! Yesssssssss!!!!!!!"

This went on and on ... in fact, he's still doing it.

Why am I so excited? James is usually fixated on a video. He is typically passive about playing with things. I have heard about kids playing with Britex blocks, Kinex, and other building types of toys. James could not have been less interested in them.

Give him buttons to push and he'd be engrossed for 20-45 minutes. But this ... oh joy! When he gets over the initial fascination, I'm going to turn his sister loose on it with the wooden building blocks, and see what they come up with for the trains to drive through.

The best part? His dad found this whole box of used but perfectly fine Thomas Train stuff for $1.

James' Dad has a big grin on his face too today!

The Slurping Life is listening and looking. Visit Melody and check out SOOC Saturday/Sunday entries past & present. No cropping or fixing -- it's life, straight out of the camera.





  

Riding the Rails

Today was a beautiful, hot summer day. It was a great day to go to the park and play in the spouting water play area and enjoy an outdoor picnic lunch.

When we got tired, we took a ride:



James has always like trains, but on this ride he gave several train whistles and gleefully said "Tickets, lease" "All aboard!" and "Let's go! Green light!" He hooted in the Haunted Tunnel and yelled with delight when they sounded the train whistle.

He still likes watching "The Polar Express."

SOOC Saturday: Train of Thought

Last month I took James and his sister to go see the Disney Train, aka The Disney Christmas Carol Train Tour. It's a cook promotional gimmick for the movie coming out this fall. The train is free to the public and tours the U.S. this summer into fall (schedule).

I know that The Slurping Life is on hiatus at the moment, but I found some great SOOC photos from this trip while looking back at my pics.

I can't decide which is my favourite, so I'll share them all:
* The cool conceptual art car, framed to look like moving pictures in the HP movies with a sunset ceiling:


* The rendering car, which made me feel like I was in a scene from Tron:


* Catching the transitions from warm and florid Victorian decor to 21st Century Hi-tech:


* James, being excited at his first visit to a Real Train!



Enjoy!

The Morning Milk Train

The kids watched The Polar Express last night, and now James is curled up on the sofa, in blankets, watching it again. First he wanted to wake up his sister, so she could watch it again with him; then he asked for "mo milk peese, Mommy" so he could have it to drink for the Hot Chocolate scene. He is just so darned cute.

Am I ever glad I took him to see the Disney Train last month!