Day Out with Thomas 2011!

This marks our 3rd Annual Day Out with Thomas tradition and Rob and I thoroughly agreed it was our best experience yet.  Although it got off to a rough start with Rob being stuck at work in the morning and us rushing to the office to pick him up, ultimately we made it on to the train and had a splendid time. Many things played into it being the best time ever:

1.) We knew exactly what to expect.  We knew right where to wait for the train.  We knew the line was more of a free for all herding and that all the seats were going to be more or less the same.  We knew the train ride was going to go forwards for 15 minutes and then backwards for another 15 minutes and that it was more about hyping up that we were ON the actual Thomas train vs. going somewhere exciting. Total “joy in the journey” deal.  We jammed to the Thomas songs.  Oohed and Aahhed over the springtime scenery of Heber mountains, grassy meadows, farmland, and creek.  Waved to every passing neighbor that looked our way… and generally soaked in the special family occasion of it all.

2.) The weather was pretty darn good.  Last year it was soo hot.  We were sweaty and uncomfortable and so were the kids.  This year it was sunny, but much cooler.  Towards the end the wind kicked up a little and Rob was too chilly in the shade because he forgot his jacket… but all in all, it was definitely an improvement.

3.)  It really was not too crowed.  It runs Thursday through Monday and we went Friday.  Don’t get me wrong.  There was a solid crowd, but it really was manageable.

4.) We knew what to hit and what to avoid.  We enjoyed mini golf, avoided the tent of kids playing with trains, skipped the line waiting for an employee to put on tatoos and put on our own, blew off the mega line waiting to take a pic with Thomas but instead got cotton candy for the boys to eat while we waited in the short line for a pic with Sir Topham Hat.

5.) We did NOT buy our tickets online, instead we bought them from our local Smith Tix so we could pay less processing fees (I’ll take what I can get)  and even got a ticket free by going to the second to last train time, that apparently they were pushing in a big way.  I think I’ll consider Rob the free person/ticket in this scenario .

A couple kid moments included when one of the engineers helped Caleb up the steps to the train, he proclaimed “I like you!”  Also, I put Rob in charge of taking Caleb to the bathroom in the portapotty.  Caleb utterly refused and I can hardly blame him.  Being the brilliant mother that I am, I was able to convince him to pee in the handy little urinal section inside of it.  Much better.  Isaac was also quite hesitant to go and asked if the portapotty was for “Mamas or cats?”  I told him it was for everybody.  He repeated “and cats?” “No Isaac, it’s not for cats.”  Only then would he pee in it.The cotton candy was 2 tickets.  I asked the guy if he would give me a “boy” size for 1 ticket so they could each have their VERY own and he agreed.  Score! Nothing better than a cotton candy goatee.If you look at their incredible expressions you can see why waiting in the line for a picture with Thomas was NOT worth it. Even Topham Hat is struggling.Here is our “no line” version of a picture with Thomas. I think this is the happiest Rob’s ever been to pose for a picture. Three boys in da hood. Happy happiness, riding Thomas and their very own sugar high… and then sugar crash, the climax being Zekie yelling “I’m hungry for… BLOOD!!”  Rob and I just looked at each other like, did that really just happen!?  Apparently he saw some super hero cartoon with a vampire bad guy.  Looks like it’s time to go back to watching Thomas the Tank Engine!

The rhythm is gonna get you!

And for the grand finale, Zekie and Caleb (briefly) busting out their best Thomas moves!  Later though, when all the kids (maybe 30) had a dance/drum off Isaac was the grand prize winner of the coveted neon green and pink train whistle.  Woot woot!!

Caleb’s 3rd Birthday

Our baby is tha-wee!  He’s such a big boy that we clearly needed to have a BIG party.  He picked out the dinosaur decorations at Walmart himself and with the balloons, streamers, and happy birthday banner we were ready to go! I asked Caleb what kind of birthday cake he wanted… maybe Ironman…or Umizoomi? No, he wanted it to be BLUE.  Just blue. Nothing else.  It’s like he knows I don’t have any cake skillz and didn’t want me to hurt myself trying.  I conveniently had some dinosaur sprinkles, so we spiced it up a bit… nothing too fancy. And let’s be honest…it’s all about the frosting anyway.  I could have just bought a tub of frosting, stirred in some blue food coloring and handed it to him and he would have been just as happy. The Bachman brothers… and best friend Nate the neighbor, who virtually lives at our house.  It’s a good thing.  He’s like our Urkel, Kimmy Gibler or Cody from ‘Step By Step’ … but cooler clearly. Caleb got lots of love and attention from his family and friends! Caleb’s ultimate favorite present.. a Bop Bag tiger that you can punch and it will pop back up… until it get a hole within 24 hours and takes up space in your toy box.  It was GLORIOUS for a day though, and he did the best happy dance when he got it. Caleb questioning, is this entire bag of jellybeans all for me? Nick and Erica really hooked Caleb up… he was the happiest of nephews.  Candy and a ball?  The perfect 3 year old gift. You can see Zekie was more anxious for Caleb to open his presents than he was. All Bachman functions must have a full body tackle at some point in the program. The bop bag didn’t stand a chance with this group about to pounce. Here is Nick trying to resurrect my attempt at the actual cake portion of Caleb’s birthday.  I of course didn’t let the cake cool down properly before I put the frosting on and it melted in a disgusting blob around the outside.  I tried to recruit Nick to help me and he was entirely reluctant until he saw there was no chance of survival with me at the wheel and finally took over. Erica may think twice before she buys a present for my children that could possibly be used as a weapon.  A pretty convincing cower I may add. Ta dah!  A beautiful blue cake for Caleb’s birthday.  Nice work Nick and lovely assistant Zekie… and by assistant I mean assist in eating it.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!  We had such a fabulous day filled with the usual 3 F’s… family, food and faith!  Our various activities this Easter weekend including: coloring Easter eggs at Aunt Kimi’s,listening to my mom sing with the Mormon Chorale in the Tabernacle, having the Easter Bunny come (Zekie woke up at 4:15am to see what he got), going to church (I got called to be the 1st counselor in the Primary), and then going to Rob’s family’s house to celebrate.  We ate delicious ham and twice baked potatoes, had a mini Easter lesson with the kiddos, had an Easter egg hunt and played and talked to our hearts desire.Zekie and cousin Haley busting out their best magazine pose.Knock knock jokes.  Gets ‘em every time.And of course no event would be complete without some super hero punches from the twins!

Isaac’s 4th Birthday (in Lehi)

Isaac blowing out his candles with gusto!

Here’s Isaac’s birthday again.  This time we celebrated in Lehi with my side of the family.  My mother put up some lovely decorations and bought Isaac some awesome presents.  Also she bought dollar store items for Zekie and Caleb with really helped with them not feeling left out in the present dept.  They got to play with some gel capsules that turned into sponges!Zekie made himself a pixistix parfait.Isaac and Caleb had lots of fun swirling sand while I actually couldn’t resist in peeling off the sticker art and adding various sand colors myself!  It was really hard getting the sticker peels off…I swear the box said for ages 30 and up. Thanks Dad, Lisa, Mom, Nick and Erica for another swell Thurman family birthday bash!Gong and Zekie got in some solid bonding reading the comics together… there are some strong genes running through their blood… see the similarities!WE LOVE YOU ISAAC!  Thanks for being such a fun and sweet Squeaks!

Isaac’s 4th Birthday (in Farmington)

Isaac turned the glorious age of 4, and thus to celebrate we joined with Rob’s side of the family and threw a par-tay!  Isaac is super into Spiderman, and so I attempted to have a Spidermanish theme.  For our activity the cousins and I made a toilet paper spider web.  Then we made up a game where you could get points/candy by balancing small toys on the web.Candy love.Twin love.The game’s finale was throwing larger toys at the web to destroy it.Isaac unfortunately wasn’t fast enough to get in on the earlier destroying but Aunt Kimi saved the day by helping him get THE BIGGEST stuffed bear and chucking it right threw the middle.

Sweet Grandma…                 Silly Grandpa…

The biggest blow ever… and the wish?  To be Spiderman when he grows up.  The other day Isaac let out a big sigh and said “It’s taking such a yong (long), yong, yong time to be Spiderman.”So proud of his blow and all the cheers from fam.  Isaac’s been quite humble lately and tells me daily about how “awesome” he is.Isaac’s love comes and goes by the minute.  If he’s happy with you he tells you “I yuv you Mama.” or maybe even “I wish I were a Mama.”  but if he’s mad he has no reservations to say “I don’t yuv you anymore!” or “I’m not going to marry you!”Nothing draws cousins like a magnet faster than a new present.The theme for presents for Isaac this year was remote control cars.  He got one from both grandmas and me and Rob…but his very favorite present was a car from Mark, Kimi, Peyton and Ryker, that had lights, blasters, and noises that pop out when you push it.  Isaac gave the best reaction of “OH!! THIS IS WHAT I WANTED!!”