Choo, Choo

My dad, Papa, and his wife, Lita, recently took the train to Seattle and up to Canada. My son and I had the privilege of picking them up at the train station at the end of their trip. We got to the train station early armed with leche and an old fashioned unglazed donut. We promptly went outside to wait for trains. There was an older gentleman and his 4 year old grandson also waiting to see the trains. Apparently he has taken his grandson on a bike ride to the train station everyday since he was 2! Let me tell you, he was on to something! The boy showed Clayton and I the yellow line that we have to stand behind when the trains come. He stood watch and reported to us when he thought the train would be coming. His excitement was contagious for Clay. 'It coming, it coming. The train. It coming.' Then we could see it down the line, the first train was going to pass. The Grandfather and I took our positions with our little ones on the platform and braced for the train to pass. It was a loud surge of steel that created a continuous gust of wind from the power and speed of the engine. The wind rushed past us and we continued waving and yelling at the train as I held Clay. Train one had passed and another was coming from the other direction. We waved and waved, the engineer waved back and blew the whistle as he continued down the track. Next up was an Amtrak train that stopped at the station, doors opened and people walked off the train. Clay's eyes were wide with wonder. 'Mommy, open door, the train open door.' The train left the station and around 10 minutes later my father's train arrived. We waved the train in and the engineer opened the side window to stick out his arm to wave back! It was an exciting morning! He talked about the train all that day and into the next. It was obvious to me what needed to happen next, we were going to make a train station. I used masking tape for the tracks and grabbed some boxes to be the train cars. We made a sign for the train station. Then we gathered his stuffed animals and ...All Aboard! Our train went up and down the hallway all night and even managed to make a couple stops at the train station (his room). Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!