She's ready to go...

She thinks she's all set for our trip - She's got her friends Pooh, Elmo, 'Baby', a bottle of baby lotion, and her pink blanket. I guess that's all she thinks she needs. ;) The girl loves to sit in suitcases... I don't know if I'll ever get our stuff in there... maybe during nap time?

A Lazy Day

We had hoped to check out the Fall Festival at our local park Saturday, but it closed at 4 and we just missed it. We played at the park and walked around for a bit for fun and exercise. The kids are playing together so good lately and it is wonderful to watch and enjoy. They are getting so big so fast - it's amazing how different they are now than how they were at the beginning of the spring.

Great Big Bubbles!

The kids have been playing outside every chance they get as the weather has been perfect! I love it when they can get outside, get fresh air and be as loud and crazy as they want to be. The kids were blowing bubbles and Noah discovered that the more bubbles he blew, the more bubbles Phoebe would try to eat - He and Rachel thought that was just hysterical! She would run and jump and catch (pop) them in her mouth and the kids would just laugh like crazy. When we were in Tennessee a couple of months back Christina had picked up the giant bubble blowers for Mom's house and the kids liked them so much that I got some for our house. These big ones are great for the little bitty people, because they can't put them in their mouths - Rachel actually blows bubbles!

Hike!

What we really do while Noah is at school....
Rachel is teaching me to play football and also enjoys playing with all of her brother's toys and wearing his hats. Shhhh, don't tell Noah. ;) Seriously though, she is learning that there are a few benefits to having Mommy all to herself for a few hours a couple of days out of the week and isn't missing big brother quite as badly as the first couple of weeks of school.

A Very Happy Girl

Having fun with Daddy at the train museum...

Arkansas Railroad Museum

Forgive me, this is a long one... ;)

I wanted to share some photos from our trip to the Arkansas Railroad Museum on Wednesday. We really weren't sure what we were going to find upon arriving in Pine Bluff and were hoping for a train car for the kids to climb around in. We were excited that the museum was a mini railroad mecca for a small child who loves trains. The museum is the home of Engine 819 - the last 4-8-4 Nothern type steam locomotive that was built in Pine Bluff, or Arkansas, for that matter. (We had purchased a photo of the 819 for Noah's room while at the Smokey Mountain Rail Road for the Thomas the Tank Engine ride last year). We also found passenger cars, cabooses, baggage cars, and more, all restored to their original state back in the days of the steam engines. Noah was in a bit of an awe as he looked at the photos, uniforms, memorabilia, mini train set-ups in HO, G, and Lionel. He was a little shy of climbing up in the train cars and engines, but was fine as long as his Daddy went along with him. There was a ton of stuff to look at and see, even experience. You could walk through almost all the train cars and sit in the seats, lay on the beds, check out the stoves, and so much more. There were tons of artifacts to look at that were used during the time period of the steam engines and it was interesting to walk through and take it all in. As Doug said to me, it puts in you a different place and time and is just a small glimpse of what it was like back then. Amazing. Perhaps I have caught a tiny bit of the train fever our little boy has had since he got his very first train for his first birthday.