train festival.

We took Nate to the annual railway festival again this year and like last year, we had a lot of fun.  I'll be the first to admit that we cut the day short because I couldn't take the heat, but we did pack a lot of fun into the couple of hours that we were there.

First of all, we decided to take the plunge and buy tickets for the VRE excursion this year. Nate (still) loves trains and understands that people, like Pop Pop, ride on them regularly. The train ride was about 45 minutes long from Manassas to Clifton and back. Nate's initial reaction was priceless, screaming "this is amazing!" (probably to our fellow passengers' chagrin).  My grandfather and his father before him both worked on the railroad, so it's sweet for me to see Nate take such an interest. This is my little guy while we were on the train:

We also walked around to see some of the model train displays. Nate was particularly fond of the Lego trains and the kid table that had an interactive Thomas the Tank Engine.

I'm always hesitant to bother a stranger to take a family photo of the three of us (and then walk them through how to use my camera), so we have some mommy-Nate and daddy-Nate photos.

I also took an adorable photo of Nate on the caboose today and then remembered that I have a similar one from two years ago. I can't believe how much he has grown!