When my sons were small, Thomas the Tank Engine was a favorite at our house.  He’s still here, but he’s a little dusty now.  He’s actually still part of the HO scale model railroad set up in our basement, but he sits idle now.  My younger son finally seems to have lost his fascination with all things Thomas.  It’s kind-of like me with Barbie.  I still collect Barbie dolls, but they no longer have full and active imaginary lives. At some point we all stop “playing”.

My sons are still very much into trains.  They’ve just graduated to photographing the real thing.  I get into the act on the rare occasion that I see something from my work window that they might be interested in.

Today we visited the Garden Factory.  The Garden Factory is a local garden store that has an annual train display.  It’s an annual tradition for us that we go every year.  When the boys were small, we went two or three times each season.  They couldn’t get enough, and they were so excited we had trouble dragging them away.  I can remember quite vividly my younger son crying because we had to leave.  Now we go once before they take it down.  We no longer need to visit while Santa is in residence, listening to children’s wishes and getting his photo taken with little ones.  We still marvel at the magic and detail of the train layout.

All little boys grow up.