The parents aren't the only ones who enjoy a fun train ride - the boys love the Christmas train so much that I thought we would give the Easter train a chance. I was imagining it would be almost identical, but with an Easter theme for the crafts and such. (I was 100% right)
We planned this train trip with a friend that has 3 kids, so Matt was generous enough to bow out and let us take up two tables without him. Ha! He's got a limited tolerance for the amount of noise this many kids generate, so I think he is more than happy to stick to one kid event train a year. ;)
But in a stroke of "luck", he ended up having to work incredibly late the night before and didn't get home until the wee hours of the morning. Bad for Matt, but good for us because he bought us donuts for breakfast! Best hubby / dad ever!
Made it on the train with plenty of time to spare. It helped that I was caravanning with my friends... Since I bought the tickets all together, we had to arrive together. We gave them our little cup of crayons because we are all about bringing our own giant tin of crayons with us for coloring. Thomas seemed super excited about coloring and I thought he might actually get the whole thing colored (haha - nope!).
Henry did not even pretend to be interested in coloring. But he sure was enjoying watching the scenery as we chugged by.
These two were not too sure about the Easter Bunny at first. Thomas warmed up pretty quickly though and gave the bunny a high-five. Henry only warmed up once he realized the bunny was carrying a bucket of candy. Then he was all about the Easter Bunny!
There was a table at the end that didn't have seats on one side and any time the other side's occupants went to get a snack, these two would run over and stand there to look out the window.
It looks like the ice is starting to break up finally! There were massive chunks of super dirty ice scattered all along the Turnagain Arm. Come on, spring!
This activity was challenging for me, I can't imagine that many kids got this completed without help. You had to string them with one side, then string the other side through the beads. And unsurprisngly, they fell apart shortly after we got home. Don't tell the boys their super-awesome carrots ended up in the trash... "/
The train stopped so everyone could get a glimpse of the sheep on the side of the mountain. Thomas spotted it right away, but Henry needed some help finding. Thomas was being a very good big brother and pointing the sheep out to Henry. (And can you tell the lady with the basket of snacks just stopped by??)
Jellybean Bingo! Thomas ended up winning because they just kept playing until everyone won. Henry would have one, but he just kept eating his jellybean markers. But that was probably "winning" to Henry, so it works! :)
We were back in Anchorage before the balloonists made it to our car. They were working from both sides and my boys were getting worried they weren't going to get balloons. Turns out, we got back to the station before their balloons got made, but they patiently waited on the train for their turn. And Henry really wanted a black flower. Bold choice, son!
We tried to get a photo of all of the kids once we got off the train, but it was impossible. It was too bright for Thomas, Henry was pretending to shoot his flower at me and one of my friend's kids was just wandering off. Oh well, we tried!
Our family photo wasn't much better, but I'll take it. :)
See you again soon, Alaska Railroad!