Here comes the Train!

I've decided to revive the blog so we can post more details about the goings on with the Kims than the current snippet here or there on facebook.

My mom and dad were out here for a couple of weeks - helping around the house, playing with Joey, cooking lefse, kolaches and other tasty treats.

Last weekend we indulged Joey with a train ride to Sacramento to visit the California State Railroad Museum. Last summer started Joey's love-affair with trains when he found a book at Grandma Ludtke's - Trains. There is no plot, there are no cute characters, and the artwork isn't really that beautiful - it's a non-fiction book about trains that we have now read to Joey about 5,000,000 times. If you ever get to spend time coloring with Joey, he will request that you draw trains for him (with kitty's riding them - don't ask me why...)

So we decided a trip to the museum with a ride on a real train would make for a fun weekend and packed our bags and headed off to Old Town Sacramento for the night. The following picture pretty much sums up how Joey felt about this.

He was in heaven. We took the big Chicago-bound train to Sacramento and realized how nice train travel can be. Joey enjoyed seeing the big train and eating and sleeping on the train just like in his book. (ok - his sleeping was just a nap in his daddy's arms since we were only on a short trip but still - it counts!) When we got to Sacramento we went to the hotel which had glass elevators and lots of buttons to push. Then we walked around Old Sacramento where there were trains to look at, horses pulling buggies and boats in the river. He thought he was in heaven and we hadn't even gone to the train museum yet!

After our afternoon naps, my friend from college, Heidi, came over to visit and swim with her two kids. It was nice to catch up with an old friend - I wish we did it more frequently...

On Sunday we enjoyed an early breakfast and a little bit of playtime at the hotel before we headed out to the Train Museum. Once I mentioned that we were going to see the trains Joey pretty much dragged all of us out of the hotel room and would have just gone himself if possible. The museum itself is amazing - I would have enjoyed it as an adult but it was even more impressive through the eyes of a child. They have a large collection of trains and guides throughout who tell you about the trains that you are on. The mail train was one of the most fascinating - that looked like some seriously hard work - sorting mail as you went across country getting new bags of mail along the way and dropping off the sorted mail all without stopping.

Upstairs they had the model trains and a section of train tables where the kids could play with the Thomas the Train sets they had available. One of the fun perks of having a kids is that you get to be a kid again yourself. Of course now Ray is as train-obsessed as Joey and has started researching model trains...


That's about it from Oakland for now!