The Hostlers Model Railroad Festival

Claudia and I had a memorable outing this afternoon with Talmage, Louise, and Ben. We had driven to Layton to visit them and for Ben's birthday (which was on February 10) take him to Wal-Mart to let him pick out his birthday present. On our way to Layton we heard an ad on the radio about a model railroad festival being held at Ogden's Union Station and as a part of the festival an opportunity to see one of the new Frontrunner train cars. So we decided to go to Ogden.

Claudia took Ben shopping at Wal-Mart while I went to nearby Sam's Club to get a few items. During the time we were in the stores a cold front moved through the area, and we were surprised at how much colder it was when we came out than when we went in. We went back and picked up Talmage and Louise, and went to Wendy's in Clearfield for lunch. It started raining while we were eating. We debated whether to still go to the train show, but decided to go for it.

It rained on us all the way to Ogden. While we were in Union Station enjoying the various model railroad displays, including an impressive one made of Legos, the rain turned to snow. We decided to walk the couple blocks through the snow to where we could get in the new Frontrunner car. Impressive. It is supposed to start operating in late April.

We then rode on a little shuttle train back to Union Station and then walked through the snow to where our car was parked and drove through heavy snow (although not yet sticking to the road) back to Layton, dropped Talmage, Louise, and Ben off at their house, and drove home to Bountiful.

Originally this afternoon was going to be the February-March family birthday party, celebrating Claudia's, Anna's, and Ben's February birthdays and Robert's March birthday. The party was going to have been at Michael and Shauna's house, but earlier in the week Shauna had called to say Meghan was really sick and had a persistent high fever from the flu-like virus going around. So Becca offered her house. Robert and Rachael were planning to be down from Malad for the weekend, but Rachael called Friday morning to say Claudia Sue was similarly sick. And then just this morning Becca called to say that Hyrum and perhaps even herself were similarly sick, so we decided to cancel the party for now.