Train Museum

Justin was on call on Saturday. Usually, when he is on call on a Saturday, I try to get the kids out and do something special and fun. I do it for the kids, but really getting out helps with my sanity too. I'd been thinking about what to do and I remembered that Elkhart (a city close to South Bend) has a train museum. I'd heard about it from a neighbor and had been meaning to check it out but had never gotten around to it. So I decided that Saturday was going to be the day.

I'd never been to this museum and didn't know anything about it so I needed to call and ask about admission price and hours of operation. When I did, the man on the phone told me I was in luck because they had just redone some of their exhibits and therefore admission was free that weekend! SCORE!! I was so happy, because the only thing better than a super fun outing is a FREE super fun outing! We were in for sure.

My brother and his family happen to live in Elkhart so I called them to see if they wanted to come with us (or at least, if we could bring some of their kids with us). Turns out my sister in law and their two oldest kids were in too! So we went and picked them up and headed to the museum (and left Josie with my brother - thanks Jared)!

I have to say that the train museum didn't disappoint. Even if we had paid admission, it would have been worth every penny. The museum is totally kid friendly. They had exhibits for the kids to touch and anything that they didn't want kids touching, they cleverly put behind glass (genius). I didn't have to spend one second worrying about my kids breaking something and I never once had to say, "Please don't touch that!" It was nice.

The highlights of the museum included: a giant ride-on Thomas the Tank Engine, a large train table with Thomas and Friends figures, a massive working train set for the kids to watch, and a trainyard full of old traincars that you could climb inside and walk around in! My boys are crazy about trains and could have spent days here just watching and playing. This is officially one of my new favorite spots in Indiana!

Here's why:
Playing at the train table. My boys have a train table at home, but this one was much better! They were in Heaven!
Ride on Thomas! (Side note: Noah has started dressing himself. As long as it's seasonally appropriate, I let it go. Today was one of those days. Also, he didn't want me to fix his hair. I said okay. You pick your battles. He won but he looks a little ragged.)

They had these huge display cases with all kinds of model trains. Seriously, huge. Floor to ceiling and covering at least three walls.
Watching the model trains drive on the track. This track took up about half of the room. The kids loved watching it!
Noah and Tori.
Me and the kids in the dining car. I just mostly love Noah's face in this picture. What a ham! (Also, in addition to free admission, they had free popcorn. Awesome.)
Dear Ashley and Anisha, I saw this and thought of you. I hope it makes you giggle. I did. Apparently I'm still 12. Love, Ariane
Outside in the train yard. The tires on this one were HUGE!
Our own little 'Boxcar children'.
I think that, eventually, the goal of the museum is to restore all these old traincars, but it was really cool to see them as they are. They were really interesting. We all loved how blue this one was.
I forgot my camera so Kerstin was the designated photographer. She's so talented. Love Clayton's face peeking out.
Inside one of the traincars. The only rule was: No laying down on anything. We had to enforce it a lot. Gross.
I just love the faces Noah pulls. Someday he's going to look back on this and laugh at himself.
This is the BEST picture of the day (maybe even the best picture of the year). I dare you to look at it without laughing because I've seen it about 100 times since we went to the museum and I still laugh out loud every time. Perfect.
Our trip to the train museum lasted about 2 hours. If we wouldn't have had to rescue Jared from Josie we might have stayed even longer. The kids really didn't want to go. They wanted to go and do everything again. It was so hard to pick a favorite part about this museum. I loved it all, but I think the fact that it was free is going to have to win (this time).

Our day ended with pizza at the Peterson's and ice cream from Culver's. Aside from Justin not being there - it was a pretty perfect day. We'll for sure be going back!