Pumpkin train!

Danny has been trying to get me to go with him to the Western Railway Museum ever since he learned that the old trains that used to run up Shafter Ave are sitting around somewhere, all shiny and restored, for train buffs to ogle. This weekend there happened to be not one, not two, but THREE Kramer men around who all love trains and I could no longer resist that hour-long trip out to Suisun City to ride one of those legendary locomotives.



Also, it just so happened that this weekend the trains were running out to a pumpkin patch, and I am always a sucker for these kinds of things. If there's even a whiff of fair-like atmosphere, something fried and/or on a stick, farm animals, hay bales, a banjo or two, you don't have to do very much persuading to get me there. On top of all this, there were pumpkins! So we hopped on board, and after a very jostling ride, we arrived at the Gum Grove Pumpkin Patch, where a little fall carnival had sprung up in the middle of nowhere.



There were pony rides, which we didn't pay for, but Jack enjoyed watching nonetheless. This is him dutifully following the sound advice from his Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm book: "hold your hand flat when you feed a pony, or you might get your fingers pinched!"

I think the part he doesn't quite get is that you have to have food in your hand in order to feed something. He holds his hand flat out to ponies every time he sees one, usually pictures of them, or stuffed ones at the toy store. This was his first opportunity to try it out with a real live pony. I'm not sure the pony cared.

More fun was the petting zoo, a little pen a man had set up with some baby animals who apparently didn't mind being terrorized by baby humans, or maybe they did mind, but they didn't have much say in the matter. Jack spent some time petting the goat and the pig, and even more time trying to figure out what the heck the pig was eating down there amidst the straw, since he didn't seem too interested in the straw Jack kept trying to feed him. And I think he could've spent all day chasing those ducks if we had let him. But the ducks were too fast and Jack got pretty worn out.

So it was time to pick out some pumpkins. Jack has definitely added the word "pumpkin" to his vocabulary, and it has spurred some serious babbling involving the pumpkin as his main subject. I catch him holding the pumpkin and talking to himself: "Abudabi dabi dufa pumpkin?" I'm not sure if he's addressing the pumpkin or asking nobody in particular a question about it.

He was pretty tired by now. It was well past nap-time, and he'd done a lot of running around. I think he had a pretty fun day, though. The only thing better than a choo-choo is a choo-choo that takes you to see ponies and pigs and goats and ducks and lots and lots of pumpkins!