The Railroad Museum - For Real

Rob and I got to take the grandkids to the California Railroad Museum for an outing. Sweet Summer was able to go with us and that made it even more fun! It was a joy to walk through the trains and to look at all the huge trains in the Museum. One of the boys, and I think it was Ethan asked me if this was a train station and I said no it wasn't it was a train museum and that the trains weren't going anywhere, but were there just for us to look at. Grandpa wanted them to look at all the "real" trains before they went to the "play" trains and I think it was a good idea. I think they learned alot about trains... They learned from going into the diner car that passengers were "called" to dinner by tapping a little xylophone with a mallet. In the diner car there were only so many seats and so they were called in groups...little Chase was the first to give it a try...
Then Ethan...

Lastly, Tyler gave it a try...Also each railroad line had their own special china with cool patterns. Now that is something Bella might enjoy, but the boys walked quickly past the plates and headed for the next train...

This was one of the first trains we looked at and they learned...

a little about trains and...

how to sit on railroad tracks so grandma could take their picture....Don't do this on real railroad tracks, boys! Bella fell and skinned her knee, but she kept on plugging along any way. The Three Amigos all over again!

Here's a pic of Chase getting on one of the trains....

Ethan listening to one of the conductors in the Pullman car where you could sleep. The beds were really small (but the people were smaller then, too). She said that the men in that era were about 5' 5" tall...This train even made you feel like it was moving and you could see what looked like signal lights out the window...

This is a pic of Tyler also listening to the conductor talk about the pullman cars, but what I liked about this picture was the reflection of Tyler in the window. Of course, I planned it that way!

A fun time was had by all. Next blog will be The Railroad Museum - For Play - pics of Bella and Summer, too!

Is it Dark Yet?

This was a fun Fourth of July for Rob and I. We had Kate, Ryan, Tyler, Chase and Shelley to celebrate the Fourth with us. We had a delicious dinner of Tri-Tip and peanut butter sauce and veggies for dipping. Then the big question was - is it dark yet? And when do the fireworks begin. We went outside before it got dark and got ourselves ready for the show. Chase did a few poses for me as we waited for it to get dark... Posing while sitting on a bear..."Is it dark yet?" -- not yet!
Is it dark yet - not yet....but we can

look at...the Moon -- the moon has become a very special object that Tyler and Chase love to look at because they have a moon in their room that they get to look at every night and pick the different phases of the moon before they go to bed. It lights up with a remote control and then turns off after a while...pretty cool...

and we can do glow worms, too. They were pretty fun, but they were hard to get going because of the wind that kept blowing out the matches...

Now, here are some pics of Tyler getting ready for the fireworks, too. Tyler is all decked out in red, white and blue -- very patriotic, Tyler!

It's still not dark yet, but the boys had fun watching the glow worms, doing poppers and sparklers, too.

Well, it's almost time for the fireworks to begin. Thank goodness, huh, Tyler!

Fireworks and Signatures

Well, here are the fireworks pictures... ...as you can see, it's not that dark in this picture!
One of the finale fireworks!

Then Ryan did some signatures...

The fireworks are over for another year...