Town Day!

After six years of living here, we finally found a way to check out Arlington Town Day.  Now we're pretty sure it wasn't happening all six years (budget cuts and such), but we were pretty sure that we were long overdue for some town love.  Since we were going to be busy on the actual Town Day (Saturday), we went over on Friday night when the festivities were getting underway.  We had Finley all psyched up for Town Day and he cried out, "Town-nay" several times en route.  There were kids all over the place and we were reminded how kid-friendly our location really is.  We even ran into a couple familiar faces: Dan, who our Dan used to play frisbee with, and his wife and 18 month old daughter (who is already at the preschool we have sent in an application for for next fall and LOVE it) and I saw Melissa, who I used to work with at Cabot, and her son, Gregory.

However, the main attraction was the Roaming Railroad that was circling the field.  It rang its bell and all the passengers were waving as they went by.  Finley was in awe and couldn't stop staring and pointing.

He was torn, though, since there was also a fire truck parked on the grass for kids to hop in.  Eventually we made our way to the firetruck and Finley was semi-impatient waiting his turn, but thankfully the train rolled by every five minutes or so to distract him. Hooray, it was finally his turn! What a pro!

Then we decided it was time to get in the freakishly long train line...we took turns standing in line and wandering around with Finley.  There was a brass band playing, a dog show, etc. but nothing compared to the train in Finley's eyes and so the waiting continued.

He was heartbroken when we just missed the cut off for the train and had to wait one more time, but he got over it and was thrilled to find his seat when the train came back.

 We all squeezed in and shared a seatbelt.

In the back of my mind, it occurred to me that our chicken of a son might not actually like the ride once it got going and all our waiting would be for  nothing.  Thankfully, that was not the case--he LOVED it!

After our turn, we reluctantly got off and walked around to see the other rescue vehicles parked nearby, watched the pony rides, and then sat down for a snack to watch the train go around and around.  Pure bliss, I tell you.   We finished up at the playground nearby which was pretty empty since most kids were at Town Day, jackpot: BIG WHEELS!

To top off the night, we went to the local pizza shop we like and shared a delicious chicken pizza.  Happy Town Day, Finley!