Trains, strawberries, mischief, and rain.

With our train loving boys, you would have though we had seen all of the train stuff that the Valley of the Sun has to offer.
We went to a new park last week that I have heard about countless times and I can't believe it took us so long to get there! It really was as great as everyone said! It is called the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, AZ.

As we pulled into the parking lot I was surprised by how much the park looked like the real Grand Canyon Railway Station. You even go to a real station ticket counter to buy your tickets for their little train!

There is tons of stuff to see, like the enormous steam locomotive that greets you at the gate.

Then they have a train to ride on too! It is a scale model of a small diesel train engine with small cars. It even has a cattle car and a red caboose. The boys couldn't get enough of the train!  According to Simon we rode it 6 times! (really only 4, but who's counting?)

 Simon was nervous the first time riding it. He wasn't scared of the train, just the whistle. After I took this picture Ryan sat on my lap and covered his ears too.

There was also a great little museum with all kinds of unique train stuff.

 The museum included 2 full size passenger cars that we walked through, and Ryan tried out the comfy chairs.

When we were going in to the museum I was a sign that said it would cost 2 tickets for each adult to enter, kids are free. I asked the nice lady at the counter if I could buy the tickets from her and she looked around to see if anyone was listening and said, "Here, take these."
She handed me 10 tickets! She said a lady had given them to her as she was leaving the park and asked her to give them to someone who could use them.
What a way to make a fun day even better! I passed on the good karma by donating the money I was going to spend on tickets to the museum.

I'm adding the train park to our list of places we need to go often! My little engineers loved it!



The next day was Christmas, at least that's what it felt like. We got our new baby swing in the mail and I got my new 50mm camera lense! WOO HOO! 

I didn't get to try out my lense that day because just as Newton's law would predict, my camera battery was dead. :(
The next day I got to snap my first pictures with it! I am head-over-heels in love with this lense. *sigh*

 Simon picked out a strawberry plant to put in our backyard. Our garden isn't quite ready yet but we thought some strawberries in our planter would brighten up the yard.

 Cardboard boxes = hours of entertainment!

 Ryan is my sweet and michevious little boy. I actually get nervous when he is quiet because he is ALWAYS getting into something. This day it was straws. He wanted his dad to make him a "big straw" by putting 3 little ones together, end to end. He found his 3 straws and left the rest on the floor.

Rain is a great thing when you live in the desert. It only comes a few times a year so we make the most of it. The boys splashed in the puddles before we hopped in the car to go to the library. I didn't realize until we got back home that Simon's shoes are on the wrong feet. lol.

Ry guy and his orange shirts. He picked this one out himself.

Can't you tell I love my new camera lense? Here's Ryan posing like a pro in a too-big t-shirt. We were snapping some pictures for my shop. He makes the sweetest little model. I am so happy he's mine!

Now I think I am almost caught up with our lives. I still don't have any recent preggo pictures of me. Being the girl behind the camera has it's drawbacks. I'll post some when I finally get them! I better hurry, in 9 or 10 weeks little Mason will be here!