Well, we woke up Saturday to a phone call with the suggestion of a train ride. Feeling glum about the prospect of vacation laundry and statistics homework I decided to go for it. Craig was working so me and the three kids got ready and off we went! Things seemed to go pretty smoothly and normal until we got to the train station in Hanford. I've learned a trick about buying our tickets, if I wait until I get there I can get a commuter ticket for all of us and it saves tons of $$. So my mom and I head up to the counter where we battle 2 two-year olds (Tyler and my nephew Ezra), at one point they were both screaming so loudly that neither my mom nor I could hear the clerk. Finally I figured out he was telling me that we couldn't do a commuter ticket because it was a holiday weekend (duh!!!) and the train was almost full. So 15 minutes, 2 two-year old temper tantrums and $60 later we had 2 adults and 4 childrens train tickets. Things went pretty smoothly after that. We boarded the train and amazingly enough even with a full train we found seats all pretty close together. All of the pictures are of the trip to Fresno. Once in Fresno we walked to a little Mexican Restaurant a block away and attempted lunch. That is when everything went downhill fast. The first incident was Tyler throwing the whole basket of tortilla chips all over. Okay, two year olds can be ornery, we can deal with this. Not 2 minutes later the stuffed animals start flying around the table. I decide at this point I need to be sitting by Tyler. I get the stuffed animals stowed away and clear the table of any debris that could be thrown by little hands. Throughout the ordering and waiting process he attempted numerous tries to climb under, over and around the table, but I was able to maintain control and keep him seated by me. Then the food arrived. He never eats his meal when we order him his own, he wants ours, so we just share now. Of course he wanted nothing to do with mine. Ezra was nice enough to share his quesadilla! It wasn't 3 minutes into the meal when he decides we need some excitement, so in one whoosh of his hand he sent Sari's full soda cup flying across the table showering all within the vicinity. It was dripping from tables and chairs, luckily no one got too much on them personally. We try to keep the swats on the bottom to a minimum so when they get them they mean something, needless to say, I swatted his bottom. It took all the napkins on two tables and 4 adults to get the mess cleaned up. He pretty much had decided from that point on he wanted nothing to do with food. So he sat there for the rest of lunch pushing every button I had. He has this shrill scream that just pierces your ears, so he would sit beside me and scream so everyone in the restaurant would look. I would try to cover his mouth and muffle the sound but you can only do so much. Finally, I was able to get him contained on my lap until he figured out all he had to do was straighten his legs and push backwards and he could send his head flying into my mouth and chin. After nearly biting my tongue off, I decided that wasn't working either, so I decided to pull out the big guns and start threatening! "You are going home and straight to bed and you aren't getting up until your Dad gets home from work!" I don't really think it phased him too much but I felt better after saying it :) Luckily, I think the waitress knew it was time to pay so we were able to get out of there without too much more of a commotion. The train ride home seemed to be without incident and he fell asleep as soon as we got in the car. After that kind of a day I think it might be a while before we attempt another train ride without Dad!!!
