Drayton Manor and Thomas Land

Today we decided to take the kids out to Drayton Manor, a theme park about 30 minutes from mom and dad's house. They recently added a new Thomas the Train land that I thought they might enjoy too. As we packed up to leave the weather didn't look too good. During the drive it was raining on and off and some of the showers were pretty heavy. I was sitting in the middle next to Thomas and Zach and as I looked over at Thomas I saw that he had his hands together and I realized that he was praying. He told me that he had prayed that the rain would stop like it did in London. I guess if something works the first time then why not try it again?! Well, it did work and although it was quite a cold day at times it didn't rain and we were able to have fun together. I guess that I know who to go to now when I want my prayers answered!

The Jolly Buccaneer. The first ride of the day.

Olivia looked a little pensive at first.

I think it was 1st ride of the day jitters.

If you blow the picture up full size and look on the back row on the 

right hand side there is mum with her head back, eyes closed, 

and face full of terror! They all dragged her on before she even had to 

a chance to see what the ride did!

The brave riders of G Force!

I used to love these kinds of rides, but I ca't stomach them now

so I decided that I would be very selective as to what I would and 

wouldn't go on since that would make the day happier for everyone.

Thomas got in line with us to go on the pirate ship, but they

 wouldn't let him get on. We knew he was a little shorter than 

the requirement, but we hoped they would let him slip by. 

He felt really bad and so after that we made sure to only go on rides 

we knew he would be OK with. 

I did the whole hands in the air for a while, but then the ride got

 much higher  than I remembered and I felt like I was going to have a 

heart attack every time  we swung down! Josh was 

less than sympathetic to my cause. 

We made grandma come with us so that we could

spend some extra time with her.

 She had fun watching everyone.

Thomas and Spense - my big ride goers

Grandma and Olivia on the Flying Dutchmen

(Hayley clearly had a fun time in the background!)

Zach got to go on his very first roller coaster. I think we may 

have pushed  him a little too soon because he hated it and every other

 ride we tried him on after that! (He's the one in the red hat)

Coming off the roller coaster

After lunch we went over to Thomas Land. The kids had so much fun on the rides. They especially loved the roller coaster and ran on and off there for a lot of the afternoon. The other great thing was that there were hardly any lines so we got to do a lot of stuff.

Riding the Sodor classic cars

We thought that Zach would like this more than he did since he loves to

get in and use the real steering wheel in the car. He was just getting tired.

Grandma and Olivia on the cars

On the Lady carousel

The boys on the carousel

Riding crazy Bertie the bus

Harold's Helicopter Ride

Pausing for a family photo with Henry

Cranky the Crane drop tower.

This was a real favorite of both Thomas and Olivia

Spense and Thomas. You can see Olivia's feet dangling around the side.

Riding the rocking bulstrode (not too sure what one of those is!)

All the excitement became too much for Zach and this

is how he spent the rest of the afternoon.

Proof that I did manage to get on another ride!

The roller coaster was a firm favorite. We must have ridden

it at least half a dozen times. Here is Josh, Thomas, Hayley and Olivia.

Another turn around

Thomas and Spense love their roller coasters

Throwing your arms up and riding in the back makes

for an even more exciting ride!

Riding Jeremy's jets

Hayley had to lean over for most of the ride since Olivia didn't really 

get that you had to raise the lever so you could fly higher!

Josh had the right idea when he made Olivia sit with him!

One of the last rides of the day was riding Thomas

Grandma wasn't very happy when we pushed her on the back with us.

She said that she hadn't signed up for that one!

While Thomas turned around we noticed that there was a great 

playground  down at the other end. It was too bad we didn't

 have time to play.

And here is some photographic evidence that dad was actually with us.

He managed to brave a couple of rides, but was happy enough to wait 

with grandma Ivy and Zach so the rest of us could have fun. Can you

tell from his pulled up hood that it was starting to get cold?!

Dad didn't want to drive home so he made me do it. It's amazing how it still seems more natural for me to drive on the right side of the car than the left when most of my driving experience has actually been in the US. There were no problems to report!

After we got home we were all exhausted. It had been a fun day and the kids had loved it. I was amazed at how much Olivia had enjoyed all the rides. She is sometimes a little hesitant to try out new things, but not today. We were all hungry so mum and I drove down to the fish and chip shop so we could all enjoy some fish and chips with lots of malt vinegar!