THOMAS!!!

 Hold on to your seats people.  The big day is here- it's our turn to go see Thomas the Train!

I am a really good planner, so I booked our tickets for 8:30 on Saturday morning in a city that was an hour away from our hotel.

Go ahead.

Do the math.

Then lets all ask together- "What was I thinking?"

I know, I know.  We woke everyone up at 6:20, dressed them, shuttled them off to breakfast, and got in the car to drive to Burnet by 7:30.  Your welcome, children of mine, for the fun family memories starting bright and early in the morning.  Thankfully, everyone actually went to sleep around 9 and slept all night.  It was surreal- I knew we were in for a long night of no sleep, but they were sleeping superstars!

Anyway, once we got to Burnet we got to see the big man himself. 

 We casually walked bolted for the line to ride the train and made ourselves at home- in the very last car.  Which ended up being awesome because our 4 seats faced each other and the kids could walk around a little more (since we are such awesome sitters and all!).  The conductor came by and punched our tickets and then we were off!  The kids were SO excited and it was a lot of fun.  Burnet The Island of Sodor is a really pretty town, and we all enjoyed looking at the scenery and actually riding on a train- not something you do every day.

 

 After our ride was over we waited in line to have our picture taken with the Blue Guy himself.   I didn't realize he would actually move, but he did!  That may have been the highlight for Beckett- watching Thomas go out and come into "Maron Station". :)

We shopped for something special for the Birthday Boy (who wanted it all) and for the Birthday Sister who wanted what Birthday Boy left behind.  We ended up with t-shirts, trains, and more trains!

 We stopped and had a snack (Matt's face pretty much sums up how we are all starting to feel).  Emery HAD to have that balloon and, naturally, it popped.  And then it was the worst day EVER! 

Until we found the tattoos (which she later said was her favorite part of the whole event).  Tattoos make everything better. 

And we decided to call it a day around 11:30.  And this is the face Mama gets for waking up a sleeping 4 year old at 6 in the morning.  Your welcome, Emery and the rest of Burnet.  You. Are. Welcome.

Everyone rested on the drive back to the hotel- well not Matt, he drove- and we stopped at Subway where my children decided they needed to eat at their own table.  It wasn't crowded so we let them go for it.

When we got back to the hotel Beckett still needed a little more rest, so Emery watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (thank you hotel with no Nick Jr or super kid friendly kid shows) and then I spent an hour with her exploring the hotel and acting as her personal paparazzi.

After everyone was done napping and tearing up our hotel room it was time to head to dinner!  We made plans to meet some friends from back home who were also coming to see Thomas, and we had an absolute blast!  We went to The Oasis and these Houston folks were so happy to see all the hills!  The scenery all weekend was amazing and made driving around so much fun.

And again- I am Emery's personal photographer.  The first one is in the courtyard of The Oasis and the second is from our table.  See the views?  Amazing!  This restaurant is known for having the best sunset views in Austin, and even though it was cloudy, the views did not disappoint.  

 We ate, we laughed, we wrangled, we had a great time!

We stayed for over 2 hours and decided that The Oasis had probably had enough of the 9 of us.  The courtyard outside the restaurant is so adorable and had several benches and rocks and statues that are kid magnets!  We decided to let them take some pictures outside and this is what I got...

Awesome.

After a long (but fun!) day it was time to go back to the hotel and get some rest.  We headed home the following morning and we were all sad to see our fun weekend come to a close.  

When we got home we got Beckett's new trains out and played with those the rest of the afternoon.  His enthusiasm for Thomas has been brought to a whole new level.  When Matt showed him the new trains he threw his arms in the air and said "THOMAS!!!!", and that made it all worth it.

Happy Birthday Weekend Big Guy!

The Traveling Maddi!

This weekend, the Maddi 4 loaded up in the Swagger Wagon for our first family vacation!  Just the 4 of us,  and we had a blast!!!

Beckett's birthday is this week so we decided to take a little weekend vacation and head to the Hill Country to let them spend A Day out with Thomas!  We talked about it quite a bit leading up to our trip and Beckett didn't really seem to know what was going on, but Emery was super excited!

Our first stop was in the beautiful city of Bastrop at the famous Buccee's.  We've never stopped at Buccee's before, so of course we had to see what it was all about it- and you know what- it's all about everything!  We shopped, we ate, we threw temper tantrums- we've now Buccee'd.  Moving On.

Once we made it to Austin we (I) thought it would be fun to let the kids see the Capital Building.  Emery's been saying the pledge at school and learning the difference between the American flag and the Texas flag so I thought she might like to see what the Texas Capital was like.  

I can remember going when I was little, but I didn't remember just how impressive all the architecture is.  It's beautiful!  And full of so much history.  They've done an amazing job of preserving and restoring the building.

We had a beautiful tour guide who took us to all the different elevators and stairs (yes, that was the best part for her).

But, really we looked at all the chambers and libraries and court rooms.  It's amazing!

We also went into the Chapel and I saw this sign.  It's beautiful.  I kept thinking at any minute Rick Perry was going to walk in and need some consoling words from a kind 4 year old, but this in fact did not happen.  :)

This guy also got his chance to play tour guide.  He just wanted to dance.

We left the Capital Building and got half way to the car when we got caught in a huge downpour!  Austin is in the middle of a major drought and I know they were glad to see the rain, but we were SO close to being back at the car.  Oh well!  We settled in under a tree and hung out for a little while.  I think the faces sum up how we were all feeling.

We finally got a (small) break from the rain and bolted for the car.  Our next stop was our home away from home for the weekend- our hotel! We got checked in and settled and then needed food- we are not a people who do hungry well.  Since it was Friday we decided we needed some pizza.  We found the closest pizza place and it did not disappoint.

We ate, we drank, we laughed, we played on the playground.  Not bad for a trip out to a restaurant!  We tried to get everyone in to bed at a somewhat reasonable time- the big blue engine was calling our name first thing in the morning!  

Stay tuned...