You Wanna Read Another Post About Trains?

While watching the WGN Morning News, I caught a segment about a lady in Barrington who has a large collection of model trains.  Along with her business, she raises money for Interlachen School For the Arts by opening her grounds to the public in June.  So I thought, "Let's go over there along with the rest of humanity after a week of rain to walk around in some stranger's grass to see a toy train!  It will be a blast!  There might even be a Porta Potty!"

The Garden Layout is really nice.  We saw Chessie System, Napa Valley Wine Train, Santa Fe Super Chief and Southern Pacific trains.

My Boys

There was a sunken garden with raised beds.  Each little bed had a bird house on a post. There was a fountain in the middle.

The lettuce looked awesome.

Inside, there was a room of smaller models with great miniatures.

Millennium Park

The miniatures were really great.  These pics don't do it justice.

We had a good time over there and if you hear of any more family outings involving trains that are not only expensive, take a long time to travel to, but are also really crowded, let us know.  We love that shizzle. 

That One Time My Car DIed On The Way Home From Church

My beloved 2003 Honda CR-V with 143,000 miles under her hood took her last ride on Sunday, June 2nd, 2013. 

I loved that car.  I drive an ungodly long distance to work, and that car made it fun.  Until last July when the radio broke.  And it was irritating to have to unlock the door manually.  I know, first world problem.  We made the tough decision to get a new (to us) pre-owned Honda instead of pour money into the old girl. 

After our vacation, we picked out a new "mama car" and took her home.  We are getting along famously, she and I. 

The Family with the old girl.

Retiring the 2003.

The 2012 seems have happy so far.  All the parts of her work, even the radio and the dash lights.  I'm spoiled.

Disney World 2013!

 The Albandia and Paldauf crews went to Disney World this summer and had a great time.  We took Tropical Storm Andrea with us, by the way, so our clothes were a tad damp the whole time, but we didn't let her dampen our spirits.  AJ is not very interested in rides or loud noises of any kind, so we skipped those and focused on finding his Disney Friends and gathering autographs in his "journal".

PS- I see that these pics uploaded in some crazy order, I will not be re-ordering them, so there's that.  

Disney Magical Express to the Caribbean Beach Resort

Tom Sawyer Island

MICKEY!

He got a Monorail and made tracks out of Papa Rog's belt.

We rode the monorail to the Grand Floridian and had a rain delay snack and cartoon.

 

He liked the splashpad at the pool. 

It's tiring being so darn cute.

Hollywood Studios Disney Junior Show for small people.

I rode a 3D Star Wars ride and TOTALLY SHOULD NOT HAVE.

These are from my favorite musical, "Sound of Music".  Incidentally, "The Lonely Goatherd" is my favorite song from that show.  I wish I could yodel.

Dinner at the Grand Floridian Resort.  We can't afford to stay there, but we can eat the food.

Gnawing the head off of a solid chocolate Mickey.

Yup.  All mine.

Us

Pooh!

Piglet loved his page in AJ's autograph book.

T-I-Double G-RRRRRR!

The Monorail!

Donald squeezed AJ more than he was really expecting...

At the Tusker House, we had to do a parade thing with Daisy.  AJ wanted to sit down.

MICKEY!

Goofy and Goofy.

Petting a snake at the Animal Kingdom

Turtle watching

Manny is very Handy.

Special Agent Oso, a unique stuffed bear.  He's on a special assignment to help a kid somewhere.

June, the Little Einstein

Jake signing his name

We rode the train.  However, it went through a tunnel and it was dark so that was the end of that. 

  Here's a video I made showing how we told AJ we were going to WDW and the plan ride and such.  A tip I will give you is if you decide to watch, do so from YouTube.    The film here is so small and I am sick and tired of trying to resize so it fits here, and it seems to be a bit better resolution there.

Truly a GREAT time (thanks, Betty and Rog) and we will be saving our pennies to go back in a few years to see what it looks like in the sun.  Ha!