Toomeytales: Chugg-a, Chugg-a, Choo-Choo!!

There haven't been any posts since last week because Miss Mouse and I were on a train trip with some friends! We boarded last Thursday morning (early morning) and headed out to Williston with our friends Mandy and Samantha. I won't post Mandy's age (which is changing today - happy birthday to her!), but Samantha is 4.5 and was excited beyond words to be on a train. She and the Mouse both did fall asleep, though, even after being in the bright lights of the station for awhile. They had breakfast and played with stickers and color books for the last two hours of our ride which was really very pleasant other than the person in the back of our car who sounded like she should be on oxygen (she turned out to be a young woman in her twenties?). Miss Mouse was, of course, overjoyed to see Grammy and began saying "Nyammy! Nyammy!" as soon as we got off the train (we had looked at the calendar all week and pointed to the day we would see Grammy and Grandpa and Great Grammy; I know she has no concept of calendars, but she loves looking at them and pointing to special days). We had lunch and much-needed naps at Great Grammy's house and then headed for the farm. We spent Friday just lounging around at the farm, doing lots of coloring, playing with play-doh, and watching for our dolphins to grow (these weird little fish Grammy found that start out small and grow quite a lot bigger in the course of 72 hours; of course, if you're a 4.5 year old, the "rule" is that you have to check them every time you think of them and let everyone know that they are, indeed, growing for sure!). Saturday morning was spent in Crosby, chatting with lots of people we hadn't seen in a long time, listening to musical performances, pointing out all babies (that was Miss Mouse's job), and, yes, eating lutefisk. Not me, certainly. My plate contained only meatballs, potatoes, veggies, and lefse. It seems that the Mouse is a traitor to her father and me. She lapped up Auntie Laura's lutefisk (well-buttered, of course) as quickly as she could put it on her plate. She followed the lutefisk with a couple slices of lefse and then ate the majority of my Swedish rice pudding (I had only wanted about 3 bites, and 3 bites is about what I got!); needless to say, after all the sugar and cream in the rice pudding, getting her down for a nap took considerably longer than usual. A "once-every-few-years" treat (meaning the sugary pudding and the disgusting, er, different delicacy of lutefisk!). Saturday afternoon, Samantha was introduced to Auntie Laura's miniature horses. Feeding them treats and hay rated pretty high on her "best thing of the day review" at night according to her mom. They're a pretty great size for small ones to feed, pet, and love up. Miss Mouse joined us subsequent days to play with them. Sunday we spent visiting with family as Great Auntie Karen, Great Uncle Bill, and Great Grammy drove up for lunch and the afternoon. We all did lots of coloring, too, under Samantha's direction. She's quite the coloring fiend! It was time to pack up again on Monday, but we did manage to sneak in some outdoor time to give the girls a wagon ride (in my old red wagon), time to play with the cats, and a bit of time to swing and play with the horses. The most popular event that day was the wagon ride. Then it was back on the train on Monday evening. Miss Mouse didn't understand why Grammy and Grandpa didn't get on with us, so she patted her hand on the window, saying "Nyammy! Baa-uh!" Until Mandy started to cry, I was fine; after that I was crying, Grammy was standing outside crying, Samantha looked ready to cry (she really took a liking to "The Grandma, The Grandpa, The Aunt"), and Miss Mouse was confused. The rest of the train ride went better, though, we had some loud people in our car that night. The girls managed to sleep through them! What a wonderful trip with good friends. We made lots of great memories!