One of Those Days

Thursday night was one of those days.  Not the kind that you begin to describe with a big "ugh", but rather one of those perfect and magical days where you turn to your husband and say "This is what being a parent is all about."
Thursday we had planned to take the kids to Edaville USA.  It is a small train centric amusement park for little kids.  During the Christmas season they have an event called the Festival of Lights.  It is a 20 minute train ride through the property with 7 million lights to look at.  There are also some carnival type rides for kids too.
It could not have been a better family night.  Leah was awesome.  That is always a concern when planning something like this--will Leah be good during it?  She was so good.  We dressed her nice and warm and Pat took this picture before our evening started.  It may be one of my favorite photos of her of all time.  

When we entered the park Sean was so excited.  He loves choo-choo trains and was anxious to see it. Ryan was just happy to be out on an adventure.  The first ride the boys saw was the carousel, which they both love.  Pat took them right on it.  There were hardly any lines.  After the ride we stopped in the cafe for a quick snack and to warm up.  It was a very quick snack because as soon as we sat down to eat, the train that we wanted to take was boarding.  We packed up the food we could save and headed over to the train.  We were lucky to still find a half empty car and boarded it just before the train started around the property.  My favorite part of the night was listening to the boys on the train.  With each new light display they called out "look it's a...snowman, or Santa, or whatever new shape/character they saw."  They had such amazement in their voices at everything around them, and the 20 minute ride was exactly the perfect length for all my kids.
Pat snapped this photo on the train with his cell phone.

After the train ride the kids wanted to go on the flying elephant ride (just like Dumbo at Disney World, but it was called Jumbo here).  This could have been a problem because the parent has to ride with the child, so the boys would have to go on separately.  I was afraid of a meltdown with the idea of them taking turns, but they accepted that and did great.  I was both happy and relieved.
After the elephant ride and playing with the train tables in the meeting hall, the boys rode the carousel one more time.  We were all so happy as we left the park.  I am glad we brought them there because it was an experience I'll never forget in such a good way.