Diamonds in my own backyard

Maya had to carry the tickets...

Today the kids and I went on a train adventure. My mom was driving her RV home from her Montana/Dog Show road trip and I thought it would be fun to meet her on the way home and drive part of the way with her. We took AMTRAK! It was so much fun. Alex dropped us off at the Eastgate Park and Ride on his way to work and we rode the bus to King Street Station. Our train left at 9:45 and arrived at 11:45 in Lacey. (Where mom picked us up in the RV.) The kids were amazing! We've had a rocky start the past two days with some "expectation management" issues (YES, I expect you to follow the rules of our family!) and I was thinking last night that today might not be such a good idea but they both woke up today READY! Backpacks packed, dressed, happy, in the car and ready to go. I realized they love an adventure as much as their mom. (And obviously I love one as much as my mom!) My mom would have so done what I did today. I appreciate so much that she did these things with us when we were kids. Maya was so exhausted she fell asleep around 7:15 tonight but Kai came downstairs at 8:30 so excited about today's adventure that he could not sleep. He said something to Alex like "the best adventure ever." In our own backyard. Who knew?