Elgin Christmas Tree Farm

My friend Angela and I decided to take the girls on a trip to the Elgin Tree Farm where they were having hayrides and pumpkin activities until Halloween. The weather was nice and crisp so a Halloween activity sounded great for a playdate.

If you remember Elgin is a city located about 10 miles west of Manor. It's the city that I have mentioned before that reminds me of Alabama. I don't know why but there is just something about Elgin that I just don't like.....I don't know if it's the people, the resemblence to Alabama or both.

I usually don't venture into Elgin unless there is something specific going on that piques my interest.

On with the story. We arrived at the farm and of course, right when we arrived so did about 4 school bus loads full of kids. Every homeschoolers nightmare but we were determined to have a good time anyway.

When we arrived Angela and I went to pay our entrance fees while the girls played on some of the structures/activites that were on the grounds.






Luckily, we got to go on the hayride minus the school groups.




There were also some farm animals there they got to look at.



Our morning soured soon after the hayride. We were letting the girls play on the grounds a little longer before we left. They were over at the water duck racing activity that was near the pavillion where a group of school kids were being read a story.

It seems the girls were laughing loudly while they were playing the game and distracting the school children from the story that was being read to them by the owner of the farm. By the way, what kid wants to be being read a story when he/she is on a field trip with so many other activities???????? They were probably thinking how they would rather be playing the duck racing game than sitting still like they have to do all day long anyway.

Long story made short, the OWNER who was reading the story sent one of the school children's mother over to scold the girls and shoo them aways from the duck activity. Of course Angela and I were livid and stunned at the same time. We paid money to go there and enjoy the activites just as they did. I was appalled that the owner had actually sent one paying customer over to another paying customer to shoo away and scold our children.

Needless to say, the farm got a piece of our minds. The farm refunded our money.

Since I have been living in Texas, this is the first time I have been dissatisfied with a facility.....I'm sure it won't be the last.

We had fun while it lasted. Afterward they came over and we made homemade pretzels and hung out at my house. It is so nice to live in a house that I don't mind inviting people over. I don't have to worry that my neighbors might try to sell drugs to them or worse.

This is off topic but what is ironic is that our drug selling neighbors in Mobile moved IN 6 months after we did and they also moved OUT 6 months after we did. We found this info out after we visited Alabama back in August.

A San Antonio Day Trip!

Sunday we ventured an hour out of Austin to visit another great city, San Antonio. I was very impressed with what I saw of their downtown. The last time I was in downtown San Antonio was close to 30 years ago. I can't say I remember too much about it...

We have chosen San Antonio to be our favorite nearby city to visit. When we lived in Mobile we loved to visit New Orleans every so often.....although San Antonio is much nicer, cleaner and closer than N.O, with much more to do.

Toby has been wanting to check out the Alamo for a few weeks now so the plan was to hit it first. We were starving when we got there so we decided to grab a bite at the Riverwalk. It was such a beautiful day so we decided to eat outside. See the little friend that was perched there waiting for a few crumbs to drop?



The Riverwalk was much more extravagant and bigger than what I thought. We ate our lunch, people watched and decided to head on over to the Alamo. Our plan was to come back and explore the Riverwalk more after the Alamo.

The Alamo was o.k. The grounds were more impressive than the actual Alamo, but then again I am not much of a history buff.






After our short visit to the Alamo we headed back to the Riverwalk and took a stroll along the river.




We also visited a recommended restaurant on the Riverwalk that has made it on our list of top 10 list of things to do in San Antonio, the Rain Forest Cafe. The whole place was like a jungle. The walls were covered in jungle plants and there were life size jungle animated animals in there. They came to life periodically and there was also thunderstorms.....which Summer hates. Other than the storm part she like the place too. We got us smoothies and just enjoyed the atmosphere.

This is one of those places that pictures will never capture, but here is a try:






It was a very enjoyable day and I look forward to going back again.

"To Be Continued"

After hours of being at the Crow's Nest we got a little hungry for real food. We decided to check out the Ghost Town Burgers in Manor.

The Elgin Pet Society was having a Halloween celebration later on during the evening. We got there during the time they were setting up.

We ordered our burgers and relaxed under the eating area taking in the excitement of a ghostly celebration. We also got to look around the ghost town close up instead of driving by it on the road. It's really a neat place with plenty of room for kids to run around.

I really would have enjoyed staying into the night to see what they had in store but Toby had to go to work.....and I had already had such a full day.

We did get to walk around and get a glimpse of what was to come....it looked like it would be a blast.








Summer also tried her hand at horseshoes. She seemed to really "get into it".



Here are some more miscellaneous pics...





Like I said earlier this little halloween shin dig was being put on by an animal society so there were pics of animals posted that were in need of adoption. I found it rather coincidental that there were some pics of two cats side by side with Summer's whole name ....Summer Skye...you might have to click on the pic to see the names...weird huh??



After we got home I made the mistake of riding the bike down to check the mail. The hill back to the house was about to kill me after all the walking I had done already. I think I need to pep up my exercise routine.

I think I had the most fun today this past week than I have had in a while. I am very grateful!

Crow's Nest Fall Festival

There were just way too many things to choose from doing this weekend! In the end we chose to do the Crow's Nest festival. Toby had to go to work at 6:00p.m so it was the best choice since it's only about a mile from our house.

We made a good choice because we had a great time. The weather was perfect but a little warm so we tried to stay under the shelter of shade most of the time....which thank goodness was pretty easy to do on the farm.

The first thing we did when we got there was look at and pet a few animals..






Then we checked out the fairy forest and pet cementary.....








Next we were on to the raptor show where the kids got to pet an owl..




Next we were on to the dairy cow milking show and snake show where the kids got to pet a snake....





On to checking out more animals and last but not least the hayride....





After all the activity we were ready for a snack.....



And last but not least the hayride...




Our day was no where near the end, but to lower the risk of blog monotomy I am going to post the last part of our day on the next blog entry.....those of you who truly read my blog will not be lost when the "to be continued" is posted.