Our Sunday: Flagstaff, Trains, and Autumn Leaves

For the past week or so it's been all about trains in our house. Henry has been loving Thomas the Train and all things train-related, so Hank and I decided to take a little roadtrip up to Flagstaff to watch "Thomas and Friends" go by.

Whether you're a parent or not, I'm sure you can relate to having an expectation about how you want something to go, especially with little ones. In this case, I had this wonderful vision in my mind of sitting at the train station with Hank and Henry, sipping on a hot drink, and enjoying the rush and sounds of the trains going by. So much of that depended on so much; the weather, Henry's mood, and most of all, if and when trains were running. But I am so happy (and feeling so lucky) to miraculously report that my hopes for the day totally matched up to its reality. It was really a perfect afternoon, and Henry had the best time. We were able to sit outside the station for awhile and watch freight trains go by every 15 minutes or so. One of my most favorite parenting moments ever has to be watching Henry's face light up as he yelled "THOMASSSSSS!" as loud as he could when he first spotted it coming down the tracks. Honestly, it doesn't get much better than that.

The rest of the day was filled with collecting leaves and rocks in the various spots we stopped to hang out, eating our favorite vegan treats and my favorite breakfast sandwich from Macy's, perusing a couple shops, and really just soaking up the beautiful weather. It was a wonderful Sunday full of family and fun, and we're already counting down to the Polar Express train ride in December.

Here are some photos from our day:

That Gorgeous Little Lovable Chipped Tooth Smile

And then suddenly your little boy is a big boy, more and more of his baby self slowly starting to fade away as he grows and grows, every morning waking up just a bit bigger than the day before. And there he is, running and playing and kicking a soccer ball. Jumping up and climbing down, and going non-stop with that familiar sparkle in his eye that's one part mischievous, one part pure joy. You ask, where did the time go? You wonder, how did this happen? You look at baby photos with tears in your eyes, thinking back to those hazy days of him always being in your arms, but in that same moment you look up and see that little face, that gorgeous little lovable chipped tooth smile saying "play with me mama, c'mon mama!" and you know the best is really yet to come.