the Boys in Bryson City

One of my favorite parts of Halloween is our annual "location shoot," where the boys and I trudge out to the sort of place where we might actually find whatever character they're playing.

Hoss and "Little Jones" Cartwright went to Cataloochee Ranch (2014).

Farmer Jones was at the Feed Store in Canton, while Freddie Bear was in the forest around Lake Logan (2015).

Woody and Buzz Lightyear were in the toy department at K-Mart (2016).

The obvious choice, then, for engines, like Gordon and Henry, was the train depot in Bryson City. We raced out there after nap time today - racing out of my fear that I'd miss my Golden Hour lighting - but we got there in PLENTY of time (thank the Lord), and the location could not have been a better backdrop. Plus, the boys had the TIME OF THEIR LIVES, which gave me about an hour of no-whine camera time.

It was spectacular.

They wanted to walk every inch of the track, and because there were no active trains around, they could. Several other people were doing it, too.

There was actually a giant Steamie on the track with the engineer inside. He was just idling there, and when he turned around and saw the boys walking toward him, he said, "That's a beautiful sight."

So we visited with him for a few minutes and walked around the track some more, and when the time came for the Leaf Excursion diesel to return, he gave us a heads up to clear the tracks and told us to stand by to watch them return.

We did - the boys could NOT take their eyes off of the passing train, and the passengers could NOT take their eyes off of Jones and Freddie. The boys were the stars of the show, people waving and snapping pictures. Freddie, of course, waved right back. Jones preferred to keep his hands over his ears and make "cross" Gordon faces, which, I told myself to allay worries that I'm raising a sociopath, were perfectly in character for "the fastest engine."

Speaking of "in character," Jones would walk along the tracks - between our friend on the Steamie and the parked passenger trains that were stationed on the tracks ahead. As he did, he narrated a story in the same voice as the narrator on "Thomas." He does this all the time. I couldn't hear all of this particular story, but I did catch something along the lines of "Henry and Gordon were chuffing on the tracks ..."

Indeed, they were.

Halloween has already been happy.

(Special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Pressley for creating these INCREDIBLE costumes! I knew they were the perfect people for the job!)