Day Out with Thomas

Last weekend, we went to see Thomas the Tank engine at the Colorado Railway Museum in Golden Colorado. You can see pictures at: http://kids.ericshepard.com/thomas2008.htm

Day out with Thomas is a wonderful event for kids. Based on the kids I saw there 3 and 4 seem to be the main ages that are most represented in the Thomas fan club. Tyler at 6 is still a fan, but seems to be close to out-growing the need to visit the little blue train. I think it is somewhat likely that next year he may not want to go.



One thing I noticed this time as well as last time is that I do not think I have been anyplace with more children throwing tantrums of one sort or another. It seems that at any point in time you could look around and find at least 3 kids crying within ear-shot. Even one of our angles had a little melt-down this year in the "Imagination Tent" when we wanted to move on to something else. When you bring together hundreds of kids most of whom are between the ages of 2 and 6. It is probably inevitable that there will be whining and crying. And overall, I am sure fun is had by all. Once we calmed Connor down, he was fine for the rest of the day.

One thing that was somewhat frustration was that Tyler and Connor seemed more interested in the things that are always at the museum than they were in most of the stuff that is just there for Thomas. There is a big black engine that Connor likes to call "the Polar Express". We had a hard time getting the boys to move on from the Polar Express. Of course explaining to a 3 year old that it is time to move on because we have to let someone else onto the train



The video is taken at the Denver Garden Railway Society Exhibit... another thing that is always there and that the kids wanted to spend considerable time around. It is pretty cool and the number of trains running on Day out with Thomas was more than usual I think. At the very end of the video, you can see the actual Thomas running around the museum's tracks.

Overall, it was a fun day. The tickets were expensive and there were too many kids around, but Connor and Tyler both enjoyed themselves and Mommy and Daddy survived. We'll have to see whether or not we end up going next year or not.