Our family in front of the train. Claire and Tommy thought the train was pretty neat to look at. Tommy was soooo excited!
Waiting for the train ride to begin. All the workers were dressed in conductor uniforms and even punched our ticket. The workers are all volunteers and they were so kind to us.
The train ride was about an hour long. It was fun to look out the windows at the pretty fall colors, streams, and animal life. The conductor made a big deal about a giant bald eagle's nest that you could see out the window on the opposite side of where we were sitting. Claire wanted to see the nest and was vocal about it so two grandma-ish ladies offered to let Claire and Tommy climb on their laps and look out their window for it. They probably sat with the grandmas for at least 20 minutes talking with them and looking at things outside the window. It was really cute actually!
We made it to the Hale Farm and Village. The village had lots of buildings restored to what they would be in the 1800's and had traditional occupation buildings like a blacksmith, broom maker, and candlestick maker. Since it was the festival weekend, the village had people dressed in old fashioned clothing explaining their trade.
Lincoln was a great baby and went along with the flow. He took quite a few short naps and was a happy boy!
We jumped in with a kid's group that had an employee teaching the children about the farm and village. We were so glad we did since the information was geared to a child's level and attention span. Jacob and I learned a lot too. Here is Tommy with a chicken behind him. Tommy thought the chicken was pretty cool!
Here is Claire stirring apple butter. The group learned about Johnny Appleseed and apples. We got to taste some of the apple butter, super yummy!
Tommy really like stirring and was very focused!
The kids got to pick some apples out of a bushel and make some apple tree art using cut apples and paint. Tommy and Claire loved the craft as well as visiting with their new friends we made.
The farm had a corn maze and if you wanted you could go pick corn and help shuck it for the animal feed in the winter. Tommy and Claire LOVED doing this and Jacob and I kinda felt we were free labor and being told it was fun. ;) Tommy and Claire enjoyed this so much Jacob and I went along with it and spend a lot of time picking and shucking corn.
Tommy was pretty excited!!
Tommy thought it was awesome to throw the shucked corn into the wagon.
Just a cute picture of Tommy in the corn field. He was a sweet birthday boy!
Below the Hale Farm and Village was Indigo Lake where the train stopped nearby. It was so beautiful! Tommy and Claire are at the bottom and they had a blast trying to roll down the grassy hill.
As the train approached to take us home, the train's whistle blew and it was loud! The kids liked watching the train chug to its arrival at the stop. We were catching the train's last stop back to the beginning of the line so we had to walk through 6 or 7 different cars in order to find a seat. It was so busy! But being able to see many of the cars seemed to be part of the adventure! Tommy really enjoyed his birthday celebration day and we even had McDonald's on the way home per Tommy's request. We had a fun-filled family day and we opened Tommy's presents after we got home.
No comments:
Post a Comment