A Day out with Thomas

When asked about the favourite thing that he did in England, Kellan doesn't hesitate to regale you with stories of his best and most special day: A Day out with Thomas at the Dean Forest Railway (though you'll probably have to hear about the Underground and double decker buses as well -- its a close call). We met up with Mary, Ben, and Rosie and spent an absolutely wonderful day enjoying the festivities. Kel insisted that we stayed until they were closing up shop, which we did. Having arrived just as it all started that morning, we were a tired family.

Here is a photo of Kel and Ben next to the REAL Thomas! These were some happy boys. Ben and Kel are almost exactly the same age (Ben is 6 weeks older, to the day) and have known each other since Kel was born. They had so much fun together.




Shortly after arrival, they all decided to get their faces painted. And thus, the rest of the memories from the day include Kellan as Thomas, and Ben and Rosie as tigers. They were so proud of their new looks. Kel's Thomas face is also a good advertisement as to why one should never ever paint on eyebrows. Yikes!



Riding on Daisy the Diesel, having just raced the steam engine (we won!) and preparing to head up the track for a story ride.



Kel and Rosie were quite smitten with each other.




Riding on the roundabout.



Three happy kids. We didn't ask them to hold hands, they just did. Walking and chatting, hand in hand.





Three hungry kids munching on sandwiches and chips.



Three full kids feeding the rest of their lunches to the ducks on the river.



Mary with the kids riding on the miniature steam engine.





Kel posing while the engine does a turn around. Mary, Ben, and Rosie went home, exhausted, while we had one final ride (the final run of the day).







This shot is actually from the next day, when we met all of our friends for a fun morning of swimming at GL1 and then spent a long, lazy, and wonderful day relaxing (and eating!) in Narjas' back garden while the kids amused themselves. It was hard to tear ourselves away that night. Here's a shot of the three old friends, Imogen, Kel, and Dylan. Weren't they only babies yesterday?