Tweetsie Railroad

Friday morning we headed to Tweetsie Railroad, a small amusement park in Boone that is just perfect for our little ones.  The dad's were headed to play golf that afternoon so it was just the mom's and kids at the park.  My boys were pretty excited even though they really had no idea what this place was.

Our first stop was of course to ride the steam engine train.  There was a little cowboy showdown before our ride then the cowboys' jumped on the train with us as we rode to the next little "town" to see what was in store.  

The second stop on our train ride was an Indian reservation - well of course there was a huge fight between the cowboys and indians.  Brody was all into watching it but he heard the first gunfire and jumped so far off of Stephanie's lap across the way to mine.  He wasn't so sure about all of that fighting.

After the train ride, a stop to see the old jail.  They of course thought it was great.

We headed up to Miner Mountain via the cable car.  Brody loved riding with Gigi, which both my boys loved being around Gigi for our trip.

We had seen that you could mine for gems and the kids thought that would be fun.  

Showing all of their gems.

Time to ride a few rides.  This is where I definitely missed Jason.  I don't mind riding rides, but these were like fair rides, which I don't really do.  The first ride was like the Scrambler we have at home.  Ava rode something similar but on a smaller scale at our fair in October and enjoyed it, so she and Brody rode this one together.  This left me and Trevor to ride because Trevor is a dare devil and wants to ride everything.

This was THE longest ride ever.  I don't mind the Scrambler, but over 5 minutes of it was getting to me.  Trevor and Brody loved it, but Ava wasn't so sure about it when it was over.  One thing for sure B & T get her to do things that she may have otherwise never done.

Grammy then joined us for the remainder of the day.  Time for a little petting zoo.  We bought some food for the animals and off we went.  I at first thought this bird was an ostrich and I remember from several years ago that those birds are NOT friendly which I thought was really weird to have them available to feed.  These were Emu's but STILL crazy birds.  I wouldn't have put my hand out there for them to eat from.  Their long necks would come straight out to your hand ready to grab.  Stephanie was the brave one but it was really just putting it on the fence, but that still took some bravery because this Emu wanted that food and would have done anything for it.

Brody had no trouble at all letting the animals eat from his hand and Trevor was a little timid.  Ava, however, wanted nothing to do with it.  She liked the idea but didn't want to get close at all.  Stephanie being the great mom sat down beside her and held her hand to make her feed these goats.  Ava WAS NOT liking it at the beginning but Stephanie knew she had to do it even though the grandparents didn't think she should be forced.  Of course when it was all over, Ava was fine with it - see Grandparents it's no a big deal.

We went back down the mountain for a few more rides.

Brody and Ava wanted to ride the single ferris wheel and stood in line to ride it all by themselves.  However, Gigi didn't feel too comfortable with them riding it by themselves so she went and jumped in line with them.  Brody didn't mind her riding but Ava wanted to be a big girl and ride all by themselves.  

Another ride they rode at the fair back in October was the Tilt A Whirl and Ava wasn't a fan back then, however, she wanted to give it a try again - what a big girl.  I love her face here - still not so sure about this thing.

When it was all over, she still gave it a thumbs up.

Brody had seen this Tornado Twister ride in a different area for 48" and above and really wanted to ride.  Well, I told him I wasn't going to ride, but he still wanted to all by himself.  He loved and rode it one more time before we left.

Our little indians.

Not so sure what is going on here!!

Before we left we stopped in for the clogging show and they asked for a few volunteers and Ava jumped right up there and did a great job dancing for us.

We had such a great time - the weather was beautiful and the kids were great.  We headed out for dinner that evening in Blowing Rock and then found a park in downtown which the kids had a blast in.  After they played we tried to get a good picture of the three of them - what a funny sight.  I love Ava's faces in them!!

We ended the night with Kilwin's ice cream - what a great way to end the day.