October Fun with Aunts and Uncles: Part Two

Subtitle: Uncle Rob, Hero of the Rails

From the time I can first remember anything, one thing I do remember is my older brother Rob playing with trains.

In our first house, he had a small layout on plywood that could be hidden away under his bed. At our second house, Rob had a whole room with an elevated layout. He started collecting my grandfather's old train things. He joined a model railroading club. We got him a t-shirt that said Railroad Robert. 

When Rob got older, he'd take me downtown to the Wichita train club, buy me a can of pop, and let me explore the giant layouts while he and his friends built and ran trains. He even took me train chasing a couple of times with his friend Stacy. These are good memories for me. I hope they are for Rob, too!

Now, he works for the Union Pacific. And maybe the trains aren't as cool and magical for him as they once were. But I think Max is helping with that.

For the past couple of years, Max has really developed an interest in trains. He loves Thomas (actually playing with him, not watching the cartoon so much), he loves going to Train Town, a model train layout, at the mall, and he LOVES his special events with Uncle Rob.

This year, we had the second annual visit to Peppermint Park for the C&H Railroad open house. Last year, Max liked it, but he was a little hesitant. Sara's nephew, Fisher, was too small to know what was going on. But this year, the boys really loved it.

Max by one of the engines.

For his first ride, he wanted to be
with Uncle Rob.

Getting the ticket punched!

Off they go!

Hi guys!

Fisher (Sara's nephew) and Max waiting their turn.

Tracks going by an old depot.

Here comes Max, Rob,and Paul
behind the steam engine!

Rob, contributing to the Thomas collection.

Max, pretty excited about it!

Thanking Aunt Sara and showing her his loot.

The other fun part of the day is that Santa visits the park as well. It was Max's first chance of the year to get his order in to the big man. As you can tell, he was very serious about all of it.

Quite the serious conversation here.

The entire day is just tons of fun, and I'm so glad that Rob gets to share it with Max.

And holy cow, I do believe I'm finally caught up. Just in time for the holidays!