THE GREAT CROSS-COUNTRY WAGON TRAIN ADVENTURE!!

Sat. March 6, 2010:   Time for a train ride! (Daddy has a train whistle he blows along the way.)

Off we go!

(I rode on the back of the 4-wheeler facing the kids so I could make sure they stayed seated and watch all their cute expressions!)

Now Isabel is in the back. (Notice how many times the kids switch cars!)

We circled by the house my sisters and I grew up in, just through the woods from where my parents live now, (that used to be my Grandparent's place.)  It is now vacant and the carpet has been ripped out. The kids decide it would make a perfect playhouse!  They ran around and were literally "bouncing off the walls!"   I hadn't been inside that house in ten years and the memories came flooding back. I lived there from when I was a toddler until I graduated and went to college. It was very strange how it seemed much smaller now!

 I showed Ava my old bedroom, the closet in Liz's room where we used to hide, the corner where my Daddy used to sit in his recliner and hold us captive by our ponytails and where our Christmas tree stood. And I showed her the woodbox in the living room that our parents had us crawl though when we were locked out of the house. (yes, that happened, numerous times.) Wish I'd taken pictures here, but I didn't know at the time this was to become such a lengthy photo essay!

Then we headed down the road, across the pasture and into the woods down "the Old Lower Ford Road"  We were rollin' along, enjoying the beautiful scenery, when all of the sudden. . .

UH OH!! . . .  we lost part of the train!

Can the Little Red Caboose save the day?

Granddaddy will have to fix it.  He unhooks the engine (4-wheeler) and he and Riley decide to make an emergency trip back to the shop for a wrench, leaving the broken down train and us girls in the woods. As they drive away, Riley starts to get very concerned about leaving us behind, and Isabel is just as concerned about getting left!  Daddy adds, "Don't let the BEARS get you!"  Um . . .thanks Dad!

Soon they return, (Daddy said Riley worried the whole way about leaving us!)

While we wait on the repair, the kids play in the woods, obviously not worried about the bears! 

Soon we were up and running again.

But then the road gets muddy and we start to bog down! Daddy announces, "we may get stuck!"

more mud!

this road is REALLY muddy and it keeps getting worse!

Isabel analyzes the situation. . .

Thankfully, we make it through all the mud and continue along.

Until we come to the Antoine River!

"Think we can make it across kids?" 

 No, this is definitely where we turn around.

But before we head back, might as well play in the sand!

maybe we should have put them in some older clothes. . .

Katie joins in the fun!

 Then it was time to head back. Granddaddy kept telling the kids to line up and follow in his EXACT footsteps VERY CAREFULLY so they wouldn't get stuck in the mud. He said this several times, But each time he'd turn around and they would scatter in every direction!

Ava finds some deer tracks.

DINNER?

Ava would go to sleep if this train weren't so BUMPY!

and  . . .we're HOME!!

 You have never seen such MUDDY, SANDY kids, but they had a GREAT time. Thanks Granddaddy for the ride!