Our Trip to PA

Warning: This post contains a lot of pictures. Sorry.

Keith and I wanted to take the boys on one last "boys" trip before the baby arrives, so we decided what better place than Traintown, USA (aka Strasburg, PA). Carter is absolutely obsessed with trains and asks to ride "Choo-Choo's" daily, so this was a perfect trip for them!

First stop: The National Toy Train Museum.

This was a little kids dream museum. Walls and walls of toy trains, dating back to the 1900's and five rooms of working model trains that the boys could control. The boys loved it and Keith and I were impressed with all the detail in the displays.

Next Stop: Choo-Choo Barn

This was just a regular toy store in the front, but when you walked through the curtain, you entered a huge room with a replica of Lancaster county set up. Everything on the display looked real and everything moved. This picture doesn't do it justice.

After dinner at a Dutch "smorgasborg," it was back to the hotel for swimming.

After two weeks of watching Ty in swimming lessons, Carter was so happy to get in the water himself!

Ty showing off his swimming skills to Dad.

Next Day we went to the regular Train Museum. This place was awesome (especially if you are a two or four year old little boy!). It was a huge building filled with real engines and coaches. Some were new, some were over 100 years old. The boys loved being up close to the trains and getting to go on some of them.

Their favorite part of the museum? The room rooms with the all the toy train displays. A couple more pieces and our Geo Trax collection could be in this museum!

This LEGO setup was so cool!

The boys got to make their own LEGO trains.

Next: All aboard the Strasburg Railroad. Definitely the highlight of Carter's trip!

The boys waiting for our train.
We went on an hour train ride around Lancaster County and got to eat lunch in the dining car. Can you tell Carter was happy to be riding on a "choo-choo"?

After the train ride we decided to take an Amish buggy ride (the boys had been obsessed with them since we got there). We found one that was run by a women born and raised Amish and Keith and I asked 100 questions on the trip. Of course, this was my favorite part!! She even let the boys "drive" the buggy.

I know, her coat does not look Amish, apparently she was from a very liberal Amish family.

We didn't realize, until we got there, how close we were to Philly, so we decided to call my cousin, Ali, who recently moved from Utah to Philly. Turned out her sister, Dani, and family had just flown in too, so we drove up to Philly Saturday night to meet them all for dinner. It was so fun to see them and meet there adorable little babies.

To break up our drive on the way home Sunday we decided to stop at Hershey, PA for a tour of the Hershey factory. Poor little Carter threw up ALL over just as we pulled into the parking lot, so needless to say, he didn't have as much fun as expected. The rest of us tried to make the best of it (quickly).

Hershey Kisses coming off the line.

My boys dream store...

The boys "working" in the factory.

One last stop before home: My cousin, Bonnie Jean's house in Penn. It's so fun to finally have family on this side of the country, so I had to make sure to visit each of them. The boys always love visiting with Bonnie's kids and we of course loved the company too.

Yes, Carter is in his pajamas. He threw up again on the ride home and everything else we packed had either been ruined by throw up or poop! So fun!

I'm only posting this unattractive picture for memories sake and so you can see my cute cousin, please remember that I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant and had been in the car for 5 hours!