Model Train Show

Yesterday was a special day.  Jesse was supposed to leave yesterday around 5 pm.  At 6 am, he received an email delaying his departure until Tuesday.  It was like Christmas!  Since we were up (and Elliott was decidedly awake), we went out to breakfast and enjoyed a family day.  We woke up this morning with no plans for the day.  It is cold here again - about 12 degrees today.  Elliott doesn't like to keep his mittens on when outside so we can't spend much time outside at these temps.  We were itching to get out of the house and do something.  During a morning FaceTime call with the Ortmans (Elliott loves to see Ned and Penny), we learned that Mike and Ned were heading to a model train show at the county fairgrounds.  Perfect!  We crashed their party.

Elliott fell asleep on the way there and was very calm when we first arrived.  He sat quietly on Jesse's shoulders as we wandered around, with me in amazement at the prices of some of the model train cars.  Hundreds of dollars.  That's an expensive hobby!  As soon as Elliott spotted Ned, the calmness ended and he wanted to get down.  They held hands as they walked around together.



"Here, Elliott!"

Dads and boys checking out one of the larger exhibits.

Ned and Mike, deeply focused on the trains.

Hand holding again

Finally!  Something we can touch!

The exhibit hall was full of tables of stuff the boys could not touch (see above about model train cars for hundreds of dollars).  We were all relieved to find bins of toys under a few tables where the boys were free to pick around.

Ned and his road grader 

After quite a while, we found the kid zone.  Elliott with Sesame Street trains.

Concerned eyebrows

Mike and Ned taught us about Thomas and his friends at this table.

Big smiles when the trains when down the hill.

Mama, I'm hungry.  Me too, bud.  Let's go get lunch!