Choo - Choo!! Ben's first train ride & a birthday party for Great Grandma!

Last weekend Ben, Jeff and I took a train ride to Minot, ND for my Grandma Edna's 80th birthday party. It was about a 10 hour ride which is pretty much the same length as the drive would have been so we thought it would be a nice new way for us to travel -- especially since gas is so expensive. The cost was about the same!

The train ran at night both times so Ben boarded in his PJs and spent most of the ride sleeping in a little bed we made for him on the floor. Of course getting him to sleep was no easy feat -- luckily we had brought the computer & Finding Nemo movie which is his absolute favorite thing right now. He did get a little train ride excitement on the way home when we had snacks in the observation/lounge car and watched all the lights go by outside the window. Check the pic in the upper right of the collage. He was trying to share his snacks with his Elmos by putting chips and crackers into the little mouth, lol. All in all, he was a pretty good little train traveler and kept saying "choo" and making the sign for train while we were waiting for the train, on the train, after we rode the train....pretty much all weekend :) Grandma's 80th birthday party was on Saturday afternoon and Ben had an absolute blast playing with his (second?) cousins Madison and Riley. It was a rainy day but they played outside a little bit anyway and Madison showed Ben how to go down the "big" slide on their swing set. He seemed to be a slide pro after that. We went to the park the next day with cousins Ellie, Gwynie, Ian and Mason and he fearlessly climbed to the top of a big curly slide and went right down.
It was a short visit in Minot but still really nice to see some people we hadn't seen in quite awhile. Its hard to live far away and be missing family. And I know Ben would love to live in town with all those little playmates!