Day out with Thomas the Train

Getting ready to ride the 'little train' through cheese town.
Sat very still and had Thomas painted on his arm.
Chloe wanted Thomas painted on her cheek.
Riding the boats. This was great, except for the REALLY LOUD bell every kid had to ring 1000 times!
Papa and Chloe on the cars. Sorry I missed the pic of Papa having to get out and PUSH the car. Did I mention that this is a really old park?
Who do you think is enjoying this car ride more?
Riding the big horse. We do a lot better with big, fake animals!

Thomas jumpy thing! Hunter really enjoyed the slide on the other side, even if he did get tromped over by every other kid there.
THOMAS!!!
Aunt Jenny and Chloe patiently waiting for our train ride to begin!

This Wednesday Aunt Jenny, Chloe, Gaga and Papa joined the Simmons family at Tweetsie Railroad in Boone, NC. This week the railway has a special guest, Thomas the Train! The little blue engine lead the way around the park in front of the original Tweetsie engine. It was lots of fun and everyone enjoyed the train ride, the chairlift, the rides and the ice cream!

Atlanta trip!

The tire swing rocks!

Sweet baby!
Cuddly baby!

"We not going to ride the train again cousin Hunter!."
First carousel ride. Wish I could have captured his expression when it started....priceless.
Trip to the zoo. Notice there are no animals in this picture.


The Simmons family just got back from a great little visit to the big city of Atlanta. David and I have a new niece, Linden Holly York-Simmons, so we all went down to squeeze on her and formally introduce ourselves. Granddaddy also joined us for the weekend so we got in some extra family time. Hunter was fantastic. He had his first stay in a hotel, which he thought was fascinating. We probably could have spent all three days in the hotel and he would have had a blast. He loved all the people, the long hall ways to run down, the elevator, and there was a huge fish aquarium in the lobby...he couldn't get enough of all these new things, and as a bonus he got to sleep in a great big bed with mom and dad! What could be better, right?
Little Linden is a beautiful baby, with the sweetest and cuddliest personality. Of course, she is way too small to do anything but eat and sleep, so we just took turns snuggling with her while the 2 boys played and played. Eli and Hunter had so much fun together and are really sweet to each other. They share (most of the time) and they would hold hands in the house and walking down the street. They really enjoy each others company and as they are getting older their developmental gap is closing. It is fun to watch them play and see how the dynamics of their relationship is changing.
In the big city of Atlanta there is just so much to do! The York-Simmons live just a few blocks from the zoo so we spent just about all day Saturday there. David and I just couldn't wait for Hunter to see the animals. We read about these animals, just about daily in many of his books. Well, Hunter was scared to death. I thought he was going to cry when he saw the elephants. I picked him up out of his stroller so he could see them and all he would say is, "back, back" after that he would not get out of his stroller nor would he even look at any of the animals. He tried to hide the entire time. The only exhibit he enjoyed were the otters! He did enjoy the carousel and the little train ride around the zoo. Those things made up for his fear of the animals! Maybe we will go back when he is a little older!