I may have written before about my son's fascination with trains. Every day when I get home now, he's replaced our daily routine of looking at pictures of fy-twucks on the computer to looking at pictures of "choo-choo twains".I've tried to take this interest to the next level, by taking him to train yards and stations on the weekends. It always seems to end the same, though. He loves them from a distance, but they terrify him up-close. For several months it's been this way. So when my wife told me about a "pumpkin train" this weekend, I was a bit hesitant to get too excited about it.
We arrived just in time for the last train of the day. We climbed on board. No tears yet. Eventually, almost imperceptibly at first, the train began to move. A look of alarm briefly crossed Mockbaboy's face, then melted into complete joy - "We wydin' duh twain!!!"
The train drove for about 5 miles, then came to a stop at a small but very neat pumpkin patch. The kids all had a blast. There was a hayride, a spacewalk bouncy thing, and some other smaller stuff to keep them occupied. The little guy and I took a little walk to investigate some of the surroundings.
He picked out a pumpkin that weighed about 400-lbs. He ran all over the place. We finally talked him into getting into the spacewalk. That was a particularly big step for him, and he made it all the way inside and almost bounced a couple of times before he screamed for me to rescue him. We found an old barn and some rusty old farm implements - he had a blast rummaging around and investigating them.
Eventually, we all loaded back up on the train and headed back to the station. One of the conductors offered to let Mockbaboy see the engineer. He made almost made it all the way there before collapsing in a fit of panic. Oh, well. We still have a little work to do, apparently. It was a great day. I got some superb pictures. Fall is finally here, and I couldn't be happier.
