Beautiful Moments Photography: Thomas the Tank Engine

Ok, so that is misleading. This post has nothing to do with the "real Thomas" but the very next best thing. My youngest child Benjamin is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Bulider, and pretty much every animal alive. I had been thinking about taking him for a ride on a very special train at the Zig Zag Railway in the Blue Mountains just west of Sydney for a while. But I knew if I didn't make time in my schedule for a family day we would never go. So today after weeks of talking about it we did it.

Ben was so excited. Ever since I told him we were going to see a train just like Thomas he kept saying "I want Thomas, I want to ride the train, I want Thomas" You get the drift. So we packed up the car with a picnic lunch, forced one of my teenage children to come for the trip (she went kicking and screaming, but at least she came. Apparently ice-skating with friends is more fun than family day! LOL) and headed off for the 1 1/2 hour journey stopping at the same bakery that my family always stopped at on the way up the mountains for some delicious meat pies.

When we got to Clarence, where the Zig Zag railway is, Ben could hardly contain himself with excitement. He was running up and down the station looking for Thomas. When he finally heard the sound of the Steam Engine chugging along the tracks he looked a little tentative - I don't think he thought it was going to be so big, after all the Thomas train he sat on in the shops yesterday was only about 5 ft tall! We embarked on the train and went on a very exciting journey for young Ben, a journey that I had been on before as a child, and one that my daughter Cassandra (the unhappy teenager) had been on also with her Nanna. Isn't it funny how as adults we give our children the same childhood experiences that we had.....kind of like sharing our past with our present.

Anywhoo, needless to say Ben was most upset when we finally finished our journey back Clarence Station, he cried for "Thomas" for about 5 minutes until he drifted off to sleep in the car. When he awoke were were in Mt Wilson, another place I used to visit with my Mother and Grandparents. In fact this place was one of my Grandparents favourite places to visit and since I am planning a photo shoot for my family there in a few weeks time I wanted to find the locations and check out the status of the Autumn leaves. We had a beautiful picnic in the park and took a nice walk around "The Avenue" looking for some nice locations. It was a beautiful day, and in the end I think the unhappy teenager might just have had some fun along the way!