The Trains in Blackstone, VA!

 For the New Year I am going to stop apologizing and giving excuses for being late with blogging and when I DO get around to posting I will just pick up and carry on where I left off :)  Especially with a new baby arriving in late May/early June, I'm sure free time is going to become even more scarce!  

I'm hoping to get our Christmas posts up this week but for now here are some pictures from our trip to see the toy train display in Blackstone, VA.  My friend Lexi invited Kellan and I to go along with her two boys and some other friends and their children to see the trains.  I had no idea what to expect but I had heard lots of other people around here talk about the "trains in Blackstone".  I was curious to see what they were all about and I figured if nothing else it would be a fun outing for Kellan.

It turns out that the toy train display is an enormous and extremely detailed set up containing many different scenes and types of trains. There is a circus, a mountain village, a replica of Blackstone's downtown, a fire station and a house that catches on fire, a wintry scene and lots of others.  The display is located inside of Bevell's Hardware and the trains run from late November to early January.  You can visit this website (or the above Bevell's Hardware link to their site) to find out this year's exact dates and times http://www.virginia.org/Listings/EventsAndExhibits/AnnualRunningoftheTrains/.

Snowy scene to the left, drive in movie and baseball game in the middle

Watching one of the many trains speed by...

Circus scene

I love this reaction! :)

Watching the house catch on fire and the fire trucks come out...

Kellan, Levi, and Mason

Kellan seemed to be JUST as impressed with this set of steps right beside the conductor...he thoroughly enjoyed sitting, getting up, climbing and doing it all over again!

Kellan's first encounter with Santa...his daddy was not too happy with me that he was not there.  This year Kellan didn't seem phased at all by this stranger in the big red suit.  He didn't cry, although he did keep giving me looks like..."Uh, mom?  Do we know this man?"  We will see what next year holds!

And last, before we went to lunch at a local diner, we took a ride on this train outside that carried us around the building and through the parking lot.

The big kids wanted to ride in the back so we all packed inside.  I don't know how impressed Kellan was with this part but he just sat quietly and looked out the window.

The train display is definitely worth seeing and I'm so glad Lexi included us!  I think Kellan will appreciate it more and more every year and I hear that they add to it each season.  Can't wait to see what they might have next year!