Lions, and Tigers, and Trains! Oh, My!

Yes, I know I got the saying wrong, but we didn't see any bears! Trilby and I took the boys on a little day vacation last week. We started off visiting Trainland U.S.A. outside of Colfax. We have seen this sign MANY times, but have never veered off the interstate to visit it. But, Cael is nuts for trains, so we decided to check it out. It was very interesting. Here's a little description of it :
This operating toy train museum depicts a cross-country tour of the USA, featuring 25 Lionel "O" gauge trains running on 4,000 feet of track, covering 2,600 square feet of display area. Adults and kids alike will enjoy moving displays, and detailed backgrounds of various locations in the USA.

They had a little scavenger hunt to find things in each section and buttons to push to make various things work. They boys loved it!

We then headed to Des Moines to Blank Park Zoo. We started by having our own picnic lunch on the lawn out front, then headed in for an afternoon of fun.
Cael loved the close up view of the fish.




We enjoyed a train ride--Cael with me and the other three together.

Payton wasn't interested in a camel ride, but Cael was. They won't let you ride alone if you're under 10, so Cael had to be paired with this little girl.

Feeding the animals wasn't as fun as we thought it would be since there were so many kids feeding them that they seemed to be full! But this guy enjoyed Cael feeding him.

Feeding the Koi was fun for all.

Nate fed the giraffes with Mom's help!

This is the view I saw most of the day. Here they are watching the monkeys.

I was very interested in the plants and greenery. They had some gorgeous impatiens and hostas. I was happy to see that they also had creeping charlie and morning glories! Makes me feel better that even people paid to keep the plantings look good still fight the weeds!!


I'm so happy to live close to my grandchildren so we can share these things and I can be a part of their lives on a regular basis. ( I type this as Nate is crawling all over me with his horse and horse sounds!) A good time was had by all!