Halloween...a little late

Max enjoyed Halloween this year. Since he's really into trains right now, he was a train engineer. Saturday, we went to the zoo for Zoo Boo. Max liked the animals but his favorite thing, of course, was riding the train, or the "coo-coo" as he says.

"I want to ride again!!"

We took him trick or treating at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's and then stopped by some other friends' houses. He got the idea that he was supposed to get candy but he wouldn't say "trick or treat". 

Can't wait to see him at Halloween next year!

Private...

We've decided to make the blog more private, so you'll have to be invited and sign in to read it. If you think I might not have your email address, and you want to keep reading, send me your email so I can invite you!

Another Camping Trip

We bought a camper! We took it for a short trip to Lake Texana to try it out at the beginning of the month. I don't have any pictures of the camper but here are some from our trip!

Nanny, Grampa, and Great-Nanny came for supper

An armadillo visited the campsite - yuck!

 An evening hike with his "night-night"

 

We're looking forward to lots of fun trips and great memories in our little pop-up!

Dewberry Farms

We took a trip to Dewberry Farms earlier in the month. It's become an annual tradition with Matt's family and we were excited about taking Max this year.  We had a full day of looking for pumpkins, riding trains and ponies, and trying to take lots of pictures of 3 crazy kids!

Max did not like the slide!

But he loved the pony ride!

 

The "cow train" was another favorite!

Looking for the perfect pumpkin!

Garden Update

I might have tomatoes in a few days! There are lots of little green tomatoes on two of the plants. I'm pretty excited! I found a caterpillar eating my cucumber plant. I don't know if it's going to make it. The broccoli and arugula both look just okay so we'll see if they get any better. I don't think it's rained since I posted last, so we have to try to remember to water.  I'd like to plant some carrots or lettuce, but we've been so busy! (which is also supposed to explain the lack of blogging)

Why I think anyone cares about my garden, I'm not sure...but I felt the need to update...

A Garden

I've been talking about planting a vegetable garden for a while and we finally did it! Matt built a wooden frame so we could make it a raised bed, and last weekend we filled it with dirt and planted a few things. I planted 2 grape tomato and 2 regular tomato plants, 2 broccoli, 2 arugula, and 2 cucumbers. I thought 2 of each was a good number!

We've had rain almost every day this week so we haven't really had to water too much. Looking out the window right now, I think one of the tomato plants and the arugula have grown! The cucumbers, however, aren't looking great. I wasn't too sure about those when I bought them, so we'll see what happens. As fall progresses, I may try some things that are supposed to be planted when it's cooler...especially if I have space from cucumbers not working out. Don't worry readers (ha)...I'll keep you updated on the success (not failure!) of my garden.

Picking Grapes

We took an end-of-summer weekend getaway a few weeks ago to pick grapes at a small vineyard we found near Marble Falls while camping last fall. We left Max with his Nanny and headed that direction on a Friday morning.  We stopped at Flat Creek Estate winery for a tasting and a yummy lunch at their bistro, then drove through the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Preserve. Matt was really mostly looking for some dirt roads so he could try out the new Subaru's all-wheel drive capabilities but we didn't find a whole lot of off-roading. We met up with our friends at a cute historic hotel in a little town not too far from Marble Falls. We had a great dinner with them at another winery/bistro. Saturday morning we were up at sunrise to go pick grapes. The lack of humidity, compared to Houston, made the heat a lot more bearable, and picking grapes was not hard at all. I guess I was imagining bending over or something that would make it hard, but all we had to do was snip the clusters off of the vines. The vineyard is owned by a fairly young family and it was neat to see the kids working too. The owners are very friendly and eager to talk about their craft. After picking grapes all morning, we had lunch and then a wine tasting. We also watched them use a machine that took the stems off the grapes and crushed them. It was pretty amazing because they just dumped the grapes into this thing and all of the stems came out one side and the grapes got crushed and went through a tube into a tank. It was a fun weekend and a different experience - I can't say I ever thought I'd go pick wine grapes!

Balcones Canyonlands Wildlife Preserve

The Outback's first "hill climb" (it actually was a little steeper than it looks!)

Grapes - each box is 1/2 ton and the group picked, I think, 5 tons that morning!