More Pictures from our Day-Out-With-Thomas at Heritage Park

Just some other fun pictures from our day:

Jen & Erin

They had a huge tent set up with lots of tracks and toys set out as well as face painting, Thomas tattoos and singing. Elaina & Erin both got a tattoo of one of the trains - Elaina got the James train and Erin got Thomas. After a few days when the tattoo started to wear off, Elaina said "oh no! My James is broken!"

Um, hoarding the Thomas toys?!?

Riding the carousel

We were so happy that my cousins and Aunt & Uncle came with us too. Aunt Joan is recovering from knee-replacement surgery, and lucky for her, had the best seat all day...Elaina thought so too!

I think this is so picturesque!
At the end of the day, we rode the hayride

Erin & my Dad, waiting in the long line for ice cream!

How do you eat your ice cream cone?

Elaina with her Nana and Nanny M

Thank you to my Nana for planning such a wonderful day!

Riding the Train

All aboard!

We had the best seats on the train - we were at the very back, in the outside cabin of the train, and on the inside of the track, so when we went around the corner, we could see Thomas at the front, pulling us around the track.

My parents & Elaina.
It was hard to get many pictures of anything but the back of her head! She was too distracted with all the fun things to see that day, and by this point, she was already pictured-out from the wedding reception the night before.

Me & My sisters, and Erin (we really didn't plan to all wear pink that day!)

Thomas The Train

We had the most incredible day while I was in Calgary last month. We had heard months ago that Thomas the Train was going to be in Calgary this spring, and the days happened to correspond perfectly with the days we'd be up there anyway for the wedding! There's this historical village I used to go to a lot as a kid, and it has a railroad track that circles the park, so Thomas was there to pull the train around the park for the weekend. So of course we got tickets so that we could ride Thomas the Train! The whole park was decked out in Thomas games and activities. In fact, my whole family didn't want to miss out on seeing Elaina visit Thomas, so 13 adults accompanied Elaina and Erin to the park for the day. It was one of the best things I've ever done with my kids, it was such a wonderful day!

I have to also explain Elaina's love for Thomas. Last fall she was introduced to Thomas when she played at her friend Aaron's house one afternoon. She came home talking and talking about Thomas, but she didn't have any toys yet. Her Grandma (Mike's Mom) came to visit and bought her a DVD of Thomas sing along songs, and since she still didn't have any toys, this became her toy. I'd find Thomas the DVD case having tea parties with Elaina, and we'd kiss Thomas the DVD case before we went down for naps or bedtime. Thomas the DVD would come for car rides with us. And I even found Thomas the DVD sitting on time out once. At Christmas, Aunt Heather bought her some trains, which she adores as well. So this day was a HUGE hit for her, and for the rest of us who got to experience this day with her!

Hmmm, where's Thomas?!?

Here he comes!!!


My sister Heather & Erin watching Thomas come around the corner

Nanny M and Elaina watching Thomas

Hi Thomas! (Elaina & my cousin Andrea)

Bye Thomas!

Mommy & Elaina posing for a picture with our friend

Elaina & Erin with Nana & Grandpa Ducky

Sir Topham Hatt

Travel Bug

Elaina's caught the travel bug from my family! Three days after we arrived in Calgary, she took off on a road trip to Utah with my Mom. They drove the full 15 hours in one day and stayed for 3 days to attend my sister Jen's graduation from BYU. My Dad flew into SLC and then they all drove back to Calgary together - both my parents, my sister Jen and her then-fiance, Jared.

Elaina's great at adapting to new situations and so she did great! She had a blast in the car, singing along to her many kids' music cds, watching movies, and pointing out all the farm animals. Elaina only got upset once when she didn't want my Mom to sing along with her! :) Other than that, I was told she was so fun to have around! I'm so proud of her at how well she adapts to situations like this. I wonder if she even missed us? Probably not, as you can tell how much fun she had from the pictures.

Ready to go!! This was at 6am the day of departure

They hit McDonald's twice in one day!
Elaina somehow has her Nana wrapped around her little finger.

Finger puppets - car entertainment!

My Dad taught her new tricks :)
She can actually put the spoon on her nose by herself! I'm so impressed!!!

Obviously the graduation ceremony wasn't too excited for Elaina. Isn't this a cute picture? What a nice grandpa!

Nice new hat!

And the real graduate - congrats Jen!

Fun in the Snow!!!

A couple days before we flew to Calgary my Mom called to tell me that Calgary had a foot of snow and was expected to snow our entire first week here!! Since we're going to Vegas next week, I got to pack for summer AND winter! But I'm a proud Canadian so I was thrilled for the opportunity to immerse my children into Canadian culture: playing out in the snow at the end of April!!! We had so much fun building a snowman, having snowball fights, rolling in the snow, jumping in it, and eating it of course. There's a lot of pictures, but with lots of family around, everyone took so many pictures which meant there were too many that I thought were cute, and I couldn't choose just a few!

Another highlight of the trip is when we drove out of the airport the day we arrived, Elaina saw a pine tree and yelled, "look Mom, a Christmas tree!!!" Ah, my Canadian-American daughter still has so much to learn :) This is Elaina with my brother Dave...eating snow off the Christmas tree!

Elaina and my Mom, building a snow man

Mmmm, Yum!

Putting snow down each other's backs! Elaina's still figuring out how this trick works, since when she does it she puts the snow ontop of our coats, rather than down our bare backs :) But the next night when we went into my cousin's hot tub, she and my Mom put snow on our necks again...it wasn't so funny this time when we were just in our bathing suits, outside in the bitter cold. They thought it was pretty funny though!!! So sneaky.

Kissing our snow man