Our 4-year-old.

Daniel just had his 4th birthday this past Thursday. We went to the museum, and took my niece, Kayla with us. We brought our lunch (sandwiches), and ate there when we were through playing. (For some unknown reason It didn't occur to me to bring the camera a for this part of the festivities.) DUH! Kayla decided she wanted to go back home after the museum. Daniel got to stay up from nap and watch his pick from the Redbox; "Super Hero Squad" (an animated super hero show on DVD.) He still says it was "AWESOME!" Later that evening, after Daryl got home from work, I made mini pizzas for dinner, and we all had cupcakes and ice cream.

We knew we wouldn't be able to plan much with Daddy for that evening. His final class for the semester fell on Daniel's birthday. So... we made awesome plans to go to the train park in Scottsdale that Saturday. This would be our first time going there, and Daniel was EXCITED. He had been saying "And thanks that we can go to the train park." in his prayers every night for 3 or 4 days leading up to the trip.

Fast forward to two days later...

Daniel was allowed to choose a friend to go with us  And of course, he chose his "best friend", and cousin, Cameron. When we got there, the first thing we did was buy our tickets to ride the train. Then, on our way

there, we took these fun pictures.

Here's Cameron in all of his gingerbread glory

Heidi and Daniel were in the caboose.

Here's the gang, minus me, getting ready for the awesome train ride.



And here's the "conductor" and the cute little steam engine that pulled us.

After the ride, we headed over to Hartley's General Store and Daniel got to pick out a new Thomas the Train to go with his wooden tracks at home. He chose a little red caboose that plays the tune of the Thomas the Train theme song. Sorry no picture. I was a little bummed to find that their penny squisher machine was out of order. We I am a big fan of squished pennies.

Then we took the kids inside a couple train cars that had been preserved as a museum. It as pretty cool to see them from the inside and how the living and sleeping quarters were arranged.

This is the ramp leading up to the museum there.



Here are Daniel. Cameron, and Heidi, in front of a mannequin modeling how the train looked when it was in use.

After we finished up in the museum, we headed over to the playground. Daryl played with the kids while I went back to the car for our lunch we packed. (Yes, sandwiches again) But this time we also has apples and little cups of caramel dip, and juice bottles to go with it. Sorry no pics of the exciting lunch. After lunch we headed over to the Snackstop train car, and bought popsicles for the kids. Daryl got himself some ice cream from the general store, and I changed my vote from ice cream and got myself some mac-n-cheese. Then we headed home.

We had a great time together. And it was so affordable. Admission is free. We bought 12 tickets total, for the boys and us adults to use. (Heidi is part of the 3 and under crowd that gets to ride for free.)  The tickets got us on the train and into the museum. We also bought Daniel's new caboose, and treats for all. Total cost was about $27. Pretty good, I'd say. We'll have to make it out there again, and bring our change, when the penny machine is fixed.