Day Out With Thomas 2013

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It should come as no surprise that I was very excited about going to A Day Out with Thomas at Greenfield Village at Then Henry Ford (I know I mentioned it a lot).  I had been worried about the weather since almost every day of April had been cold and rainy.  I needn’t have worried though because it turned out to be one of the nicest days of the entire month.  It was bright and sunny with temps in the mid/upper 60’s.

After entering the village we started our outing off by heading towards the working farm (which is what we always do).  Nick was enthralled by all of the animals.  He was also in a “I want to walk” mood, so we decided to skip actually going in to the farm house and instead walked over to see some other buildings.  We were only a little way passed the railroad tracks when we heard Thoma’s whistle, so we turned back so that Nick could see him.  Nick was beyond excited when he was Thomas.  In fact he wasn’t happy when we tried to get him to walk the way we had been heading after Thomas had passed because he wanted to chase after Thomas!  Luckily he was fairly happy to let Daddy pick him up and carry him.

Next we decided to go into the building where the model trains were.  It was put together in honor of Thomas’ visit.  Nick thought it was amazing.  He liked it last year, but that was nothing to how excited he got over it this year.  You can tell how much he liked it from his face in the picture.

Eventually Nick was ready to move on.  We thought he might like the play area that had been put together.  There was a bubble machine, toy cars to ride on, and other fun things.  Nick wasn’t into it though.  There seemed to just be so much to see and he just wanted to walk around seeing it all, so we kept wandering around.

Just before 11:00 we ended up at the depot.  Thomas was there and getting ready to leave for his next trip.  We had planned on taking the 1:00 train ride, but since we were there we figured, “why not do it now?”  Then we wouldn’t have to worry about rushing later.  Note: when you get tickets to ride Thomas you are given a specified time, but our tickets weren’t like that since I had received them as a blogger sent to write a review.

Taking the earlier train was perfect.  We were able to walk right onto the train.  We weren’t all able to sit together, but there was only a row between us (Grandma and Grandpa sat in front and Jason, Mom, Nick, and I sat in back).  Getting on just before the train lest also turned out to be a good choice because by the time the train started to go Nick was done with waiting.  He didn’t know what to make of the ride at first, but then he got very excited.  When we were half way through our ride (when we were past the village and all there is to look at are trees) he got restless again.  Luckily he was happy to take his pacifier and veg for the rest of the ride.

When we got off the train we were all starting to feel hungry, so we decided to head towards the restaurant for lunch.  On the way we stopped at the Thomas gift shop.  They had a toy train set out, so Nick was happy to play with Daddy while Nana and I shopped.  We ended up getting Nick a Thomas bath toy and a 3T shirt for him to wear when we see Thomas next year.

With our necessary shopping done we finally headed to lunch.  They had the cafeteria set up so that you couldn’t save tables, so everyone had to wait in line.  This made getting a large enough table easy, but I had a very hungry boy that didn’t want to be patient.  As soon as we got to the ordering area I took Nick and his lunch and we went to a table.  He was so hungry that he inhaled his lunch.  By the time everyone else arrived with the food he was acting like he wanted to be done.  Luckily Mom had gotten a big parfait for him, so he decided that he would keep eating.  He ate the whole thing too!

After lunch Nick wanted to get back in the stroller, so we walked around the village.  We went to a few buildings that we could get the stroller into, but other than that we just kept walking around.  Nick eventually was ready to get back out.  We headed towards the carousel thinking Nick might like to ride, but he was much more interested in the Thomas balloons that were being sold there.  We ended up getting him a balloon instead, and he was one excited boy!

For the rest of our time at the village we just continued to walk around.  Nick did want to go into some buildings, but he just wanted to walk.  Every so often we would be near the railroad tracks when Thomas came around and Nick would get so excited.  I’d say I’m going to have a little boy that loves trains!  Around 1:30 we made our way to the exit.  Before we left though I needed to take Nick into the restroom for a diaper change.  Grandpa sat down on a bench and kept an eye on the stroller.  As we were walking away I heard my grandmother scream, “David!  The balloon!”  I turned around just in time to see Nick’s Thomas balloon floating away.  The balloon had been $10, which is a lot, and I have a little boy that lives for balloons.  The only thing I could think was that I was glad that Nick hadn’t seen it happen.

When we got back from the restroom we found that the loss of the balloon hadn’t been our fault.  It had broken off at the top.  The entire string was still attached to the stroller!  I felt that we had spent a lot of money and that it wasn’t fair to be out the balloon when it wasn’t our fault that the balloon was gone.  We ended up getting permission to go back into the village to get a new one.  Grandma and I high tailed it back to the Thomas gift shop.  Luckily we got a new balloon for free.  I did take the string from the first one with us as proof of our problem.  I made sure to carry both the sting and the balloon on our way to the car.  We weren’t loosing it again.  I will say that Nick has played with that balloon a lot since Saturday, so it was worth the effort.

All in all we had a wonderful time at a Day Out With Thomas.  If Thomas is in your are I highly recommend going to see him.  For those in the Detroit area Thomas will be at The Henry Ford for two more weekends.  You can go here to find a list of Thomas’ locations.

Disclaimer: I received free tickets for me and my family to go to a Day Out With Thomas.  I was not compensated in any other way.