Labor Day Weekend Fun

Since we have been here in San Antonio we have wanted to go up to a small country town called Fredericksburg. Well this past weekend we finally decided to do it since they had several things planned up around that area for the Labor Day Weekend. We were able to enjoy day trip with our good friends the Simonton's. Thanks for going with us guys!

We started off the adventure by hitting one of the many wineries that are up in this area. No we did not go up there for the free wine tasting; we went up there for the free grape stomp! I know, it sounds so fun. When we read about this on line we were picturing these huge vats of grapes that you could walk around in, all full of crisp grapes that you could walk all over and squish (are you envisioning I Love Lucy, because we were!). So we got to the winery all excited about the big grape stomp, and as we were walking on the grounds there Chelsea says, "there you go Heath. There is your big grape stomp." As I look over there were these tiny little barrels that were barely big enough for my size 11 foot to fit in and they had all been stomped already! Talk about a disappointment!! Well, we decided to make the most of it anyway and jumped on in. I mean c'mon, how many times in your life are you going to be able to do a grape stomp at a winery?

We were then off to the town of Fredericksburg for some window shopping. Just to give everyone an idea of what this town is like; for those from Colorado it is like Estes Park and for those who are familiar with Utah it is like Park City. Just a fun little town with an old Main Street with little shops that line both sides of the road. We bought Cade and Brooklyn little Cowboy/girl hats for them to enjoy.

After an hour or so we headed off to the small town of Harper, Texas, population 1006! This small Texas town had their annual Frontier Days parade and rodeo. This was probably the highlight of the trip. The town's main street is a state Highway, and for the parade they closed off half of the Highway to allow for the parade precession. The parade was full of beauty queens, old cars, sports teams and the high school band. The kids loved it as there were plenty of people throwing candy and beaded necklaces from their floats! Notice Brooklyn really liked the beads!

From the parade we went to the town park where the rodeo grounds were. Before we claimed our spot in the rodeo arena we had to enjoy the town's local BBQ. At $7 a plate we got some BBQ pork and chicken with beans and potato salad. While the food probably wasn't worth the $7, it was just fun to sit around on the cement pic-nic tables and eat, while we watched the local towns people walk around in their Wranglers and cowboy hats. It was such a fun atmosphere.

The kids found a little playground area there as well, so before the rodeo started they went off over there and I just have to say that our little Cade is quite the ladies man!! (You wouldn't expect anything different though looking at his father!) The picture to the side shows it quite nicely; how Cade goes for the older women. He would ask these girls to help him up the slide and then when he would slide down he would give them his classic "Caden Grin" and tell them thank you. He did this over and over and had those girls wrapped around his little finger! C'mon now, could any of you ladies out there resist a man with guns like these and face like that!

The crowning event of this fun filled day was Harper's own town Rodeo! The kids had such a blast watching the horses and the cows with real life Cowboys! You can see that we dressed our city slickers up for the occasion, and they played it up. The above picture shows Cade, Brooklyn and Bryson Simonton all deeply engaged in the happening of the rodeo arena! The rodeo went for a couple hours and the kids pretty much stayed entertained the entire time.

At one point the announcer came over the PA system and called for all the kids age 12 and under to enter the arena for the "Cow Scrable." Immediately all these kids in their cowboy boots and hats started pouring over the railing and into the arena. We all kind of looked at each other like, 'what is going on?' The we decided to go ahead and put the kids in since they were asking to join in the fun. We didn't really know what was going on, but I lifted Brooklyn over the railing and off she went running to the group of kids that were gathering in the middle of the arena. Then Cade wanted to join in so I lifted him up as well, and he took off running toward the crowd as well. We were a little worried about him since he was running by himself but then his good big sister came out of the crowd and met him about half way to help him the rest of the way. I so tried to get a picture but it was just too dark, and they were too far away for the flash. What the event was all about, for you city slickers like us, is they let 3 little calf's out in the arena and their ears were tagged with something and the kids tried to pull that something from the calf's ear. The whole thing lasted only a couple minutes and then the announcer asked the kids to leave the arena. Well Cade never ran around much to chase the cows, but then all of a sudden from the middle of the arena he just started bawling and walking toward the railing. I went over to the railing and he came over to me and with bright red eyes, and the tears flowing down he said, "the cow bite me." I guess he thought the cows were after him! So the kids continued to scatter out of the arena and Chelsea and I were looking at each other and asking each other where Brooklyn was. Then we hear the announcer say, "Well, it looks like we got one little one that has lost her family." We look clear on the other side of the arena and there is little Brooklyn just kind of looking around like a little lost puppy. So I had to climb over the railing in my shorts and cargo shorts and old navy flip flops and run half way across the arena to get her from this Rodeo Cowboy who had a nice wad of dip in his lower lip! I'm sure everyone in the stands were just rolling their eyes and thinking, "City folk!"

Anyway, it sure was a fun and long day. We left Harper about 10:30 pm and the kids immediately fell asleep in the car. But don't worry, Chelsea is such a good mom that she had packed their pajamas so we put them in those before we left. We didn't get home that night until after midnight. What a great way to spend a Saturday! Here are some other pictures from the rodeo.

Bryson Simonton modeling his new hat

Kids enjoying the calf roping