Our Day Out With Thomas!

The high light of our holiday (oh so long ago!!) was the day we spent on the Dean Forest Steam Railway in the company of Thomas the Tank Engine...
... the Fat Controller (who I think preferred to be addressed as Sir Topham Hatt!)...
... Douglas...

.... Toad (Thomas's brake van)...

...Daisy the diesel rail car...

and Luke's favourite engine, Diesel.

We loved watching the story that the trains acted out for us all. Naughty Diesel crept up & stole Thomas's coaches while he was sleeping (he had been a very useful engine you see & was rather weary)! We had to shout 'Wake up Thomas!' at the top of our voices but Thomas only woke up when the Fat Controller threw a bucket of water over him!! Thomas raced off down the track in hot pursuit with the Fat Controller right behind him in a little engine called Pluto calling out through his mega phone 'Stop Diesel! Hurry Thomas!' and other such comments! I must say, it was all rather exciting! (By the way, the old man just at the side of the photo is the Station Master. I couldn't help thinking that the Days Out With Thomas must make his year seeing all the young families sharing his passion for steam engines!)

Annie Joy LOVED it & clapped & smiled all through it!

We had many rides on Daisy, Thomas & Douglas. We all loved being part of the race between Douglas & Daisy! It was fun listening to the Daisy story on the journey to Parkend station which had been written especially for that part of the railway line. The boys also had a ride on this little steam train.

I love the tiny fire box. The driver stokes up the fire with a teaspoon shovel! How sweet eh?

This sign made me smile! And I'm not sure how useful those fire buckets would actually be in an emergency tucked away in a corner!

Ah! This sign reminded me how much life has changed. Can you imagine going into a shop & saying 'Could I have an ounce of Westward Ho please?'! (Wot? Wot??!)

We finished off the day by watching the Punch & Judy Show which the boys thought was fantastic! They loved Mr Punch turning the baby into sausages by mistake!!!!!! (That's the back of Luke's head in the photo!). We had a fantastic day out! It was well worth the money especially compared to the prices of some other activities in the area. After we said goodbye to Thomas & his friends we went to have tea with our friend Josie which was really lovely. We stayed in the cottage an extra night & spent the final day of our holiday in Cheltenham with Angie & Christian & some other friends from our old church too. We even managed to show the boys The Wishing Fish Clock in the shopping arcade which is a magical clock that blows bubbles every half an hour amongst other things! We love it! All in all, we had a wonderful holiday..... but it seems rather a long time ago now! LOL!!!