An almost pumpkin patch, and a ranch ...

Edit: Some pictures have now been inserted ~ 10/20/08

Last night I was checking my e-mail and I received one from our daughter-in-law, Rachel, telling me about a pumpkin patch not too terribly far from Ft. Bliss ~ maybe a 45 minute drive! When Grandpa Jones and I were in San Antonio, Rachel had told us about a website that she often uses to find children's activities ... go city kids dotcom ... and then you type in whatever city you need to find stuff to do with kids. We tried that for El Paso and didn't come up with much that we had not already done in the past two visits here. But Rachel looked further and discovered a pumpkin patch at Williams River Farms that boasted pumpkin painting, corn mazes, hay rides and other wonderful fall activities! Thank you Rachel! Grandpa Jones found out that this little farm was only 7 miles further down the interstate we were going to take to Indian Bluff Ranch today ~ excellent! Two fun activities in one afternoon ... what could be better?

We told Di and the children about it as soon as we arrived at the house this morning. Everyone was SO excited. We decided to do some art projects at home first, eat a nice lunch, and then take off for the pumpkin patch and ranch.

We had a great time with our art projects. Since the children had asked several times about their Grandma and Grandpa Hand, as well as their Grandpa Pahman and Uncle Shane, we decided to make them some sticker pictures. Before I left for our trip, I paid a visit to Michael's and got a bunch of foam stickers from the clearance rack. We made beautiful snowmen pictures with them. Hopefully, I'll post those pictures soon. I asked Emma who her two pictures were for and gave her a bunch of choices. She decided one should go to her daddy, so she put that one on his desk; and then the other one she made especially for her Uncle Shane. Christopher decided one of his pictures was for Grandpa Hand and the other one for his Grandpa Pahman. Matthew wanted his picture to be given to his Grandma Hand. We're going to hopefully make more pictures tomorrow and add these to the ones we made today.

Emma showing me her picture she made for Uncle Shane

We took off for the pumpkin patch at about 2:00 this afternoon. We followed the directions very carefully. These back roads in Texas are not well marked (a total understatement), but we finally arrived at the address noted on the internet (on Hole in the Wall Road ~ I'm NOT kidding!) but the fence was locked and gated and there was not a single soul in sight! Oh my. Such sadness sank down on our little troup ... further down the road we asked about Williams River Farms and were told it had closed down!

Just outside Indian Bluff Ranch

Thankfully, Indian Bluff Ranch was just another 15 minutes away. We went here with the kids last September and had a really good afternoon there ... and they remembered it. It's a pretty rugged place, out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Which reminds me ... as we were driving along looking for the pumpkin patch that wasn't, Emma kept asking me where we were. I kept telling her we were out in the middle of nowhere ... which for some reason she and Christopher found amusing.

Anyway, we saw HUGE ostriches, sweet little rabbits, goats, rattle snakes, deer, duck, buffalo, llama, long horns, little donkeys ... not quite as up close and personal as on the Safari we took in Austin with Sabrina and the kids ... but still, pretty close. Wait until you see the pictures of Christopher. In almost all of the pictures, he has his little nose pinched closed with his fingers. He has NO tolerance for stinky smells ... remember the pictures I took of him this past summer out at the strawberry farm with the little petting zoo? He cracks me up. Actually, though, I have a similar intolerance!

We met a couple of horses: Comanche and Flash. We watched the worker feeding them and stayed for awhile to pet them. Diana gets along extremely well with animals of all kinds, and so really enjoyed all of this.

Oh! We did get to enjoy a maze afterall ... an Indian Maze ... and we let the children lead us through it to see if they could find their way out. They couldn't! And since I am totally directionally challenged, no one followed me at all! We finally found our way out quite by accident.

There is a wonderful playground there at the ranch called Fort Apache, patterned after what a real fort would have looked like back in the day. The kiddos ran and climbed and pretended and made friends ... and got hot and tired and completely exhausted there! I thought the day turned out tremendously well, even with being disappointed about the pumpkin patch.

We ate some fast food for dinner and then went home for baths and bedtime. While Emma was in the shower, the boys and I did some little stickers books together. Christopher worked on a shark book and Matthew did an animal sticker book. And then while Chris and Matthew were bathing, I gave Emma a little sticker book I found for her entitled, "Everyone Loves Emma" ~ it's like a little paper doll with sticker clothes that you can change on and off.

Diana thinks that if I try to load pictures on my blog while over at her house, I may have better success. So perhaps Monday while Ems and Chris are at school, I will give it a try. I hope it works because you will just love these pictures ...