Choo-Choose your Stop Wisely

My grade-school aged cousin, Tyler, had a baseball game a few weeks ago up at my old stomping ground in Florissant.  I thought the kids may enjoy some fresh air and baseball.  We packed a picnic dinner and my favorite huge blanket.  I thought since we were up that way we would stop by the Whistle Stop Depot in Ferguson for a little pre-dinner treat (something we NEVER do!).

Last time I was at Whistle Stop, I thought it was fantastic and charming in every way possible.  I was less impressed this time. Seems it isn't quite like I remembered it during my last visit almost 5 years ago.  Regardless, it is located right on train tracks and I'm sure it would have been MUCH more exciting if a train would have come by during our visit (like the last time I was there).

Despite the lack of trains on the tracks, Henry still enjoyed looking out the window in between bites of delicious ice cream.  There was also a sorry looking train table that both kids played with for a bit.

After finishing our treat, we headed outside to check out the tracks a little closer. Then, even better, we found an old track to play on.  If I would have had more energy, I would have tried to set up a picture where it looked like they were actually playing on the real tracks.

Kind of like this one, I guess?

 Shortly after that last picture was taken, Amelia started to veer off the tracks a bit and get into some of the weedy, overgrown part.  As I was telling her to get out of the weeds, I looked down and saw poison ivy touching her leg!  Total mom freak-out moment!  I took both kids in the bathroom and basically gave her a sink bath.  The thought of her having poison ivy was one thing, but in addition to that she was scheduled to be a flower girl TWO days letter.  Yikes!  

Luckily nothing came of it.  She either has my immunity to poison ivy or it was our lucky day because Jason is highly allergic.  That was pretty much the point that I threw in the bucket, however, and got the heck out of there.