riding the rails

Our Memorial Day weekend has been very nice, starting Saturday afternoon attending a cookout at our friends' home, and on Sunday we took a daytrip up near Frederick, MD to ride the Walkersville Southern Railroad. They were having rides behind a steam engine this weekend, and hubby's parents had planned this fun outing for us! It was a beautiful day, and the train ride was a great way to spend the afternoon.

 Nothing is better to a boy of 5 (or 40) than climbing in the engine!

 Walking through the rail yard...

 My wonderful in-laws, who planned this fun day for us. I love this photo of them! :)

 All of us (except hubby, taking the photo), on the observation car, which we rode for the first half of the trip.

 Hubby and his mom ( I love this photo too):

 For the second half of the trip we got to ride in the caboose! Here we are riding in the "cupula" (the upper level seats in the caboose):

 Here the kids are sitting in the rear doorway of the caboose, which was really the "front" as we reversed the several miles back to the station! It was a great view, as we saw things no one else on the train could see, like two deer crossing the track and a groundhog. We also got a great view of the bridge over the Monocacy river. The kids even got to blow the whistle! 

 Silliness...

 At the end of the journey!

And as they say when you come to the end of the train, "That's all folks!" What a fun adventure.
Today has been a busy day at home, with hubby working hard to get the pool open for the season. Now all we need is some warm weather, which hopefully will be coming later this week!