All Aboard!

In our town the railroad and Operation Lifesaver occasionally give out tickets to ride the train to promote safety and to teach about rail road crossings. I thought the Parker would love to ride the train and I was excited to get him tickets to ride. In fact a days before they announced the ride we were stuck at a railroad crossing and Parker said to me "mom I haven't ever ridden a train before" I told him that one day maybe he would be able to. I think it was meant to be!! They gave out tickets last Thursday and they were free to the public, but on a first come first served basis. They were supposed to start handing them out at 10 am so I drug my kids to get in line and when I got there at 9:20 the line was already probably 150 people long. At that point I knew my chances of getting tickets was slim. They started handing them out sooner than 10 and I was moving up towards the front of the line. About 30 people from the front the man handing out the tickets announced they were all out! WHAT!! I stood in line on a cold windy morning with both my kids for 30 minutes and the tickets were already gone. I was a little disappointed and so was Parker. But nothing compared to some of the kids behind us. There were kids crying and wailing that they didn't get tickets. It was sad! There were probably 150-200 people behind be so there were a lot of disappointed people!!

Parker kept telling everyone he saw for the next few days that we didn't get train tickets. He was pretty sad about the whole situation. Then Matt's Aunt let me know that she had gotten enough tickets for all her kids and 4 of them weren't able to go so she wondered if I wanted the tickets. YAY!!! We were so excited! So today was the train ride and as soon as Parker woke up this morning he announced "mom today I get to ride the train!" I could tell he was so excited. So we got ourselves ready and went to the expo to board the train. We only had to wait for a few minutes before boarding and they didn't even take out tickets. I had a friend and her two kids that really wanted to come, but since I had just 1 extra ticket they decided that since they all couldn't ride, no one would. Well after we boarded I asked the lady in charge if they would let people on that didn't have tickets if there was room. She said yes! So I called my friend and she was there in a flash and her and the kids were able to ride along with us. It was fun to be on the train and to have the experience with the kids. It isn't very often that we get to ride the train even though we see them every day. I think Parker had a great time and it will be a memory he will remember for a long time!