Monday, October 15, 2007

Harvest Festival 2007




The family drove to Gray Summit, MO on Sunday for the Harvest Festival at the Shaw Nature Reserve. We listened to the bluegrass stylins' of Augusta Bottoms and The Flying Mules while sampling some fine meatballs and fries from Portabella. Each year pony rides are provided free to the kids. This year the sponsoring group was Camp Ondessonk (this camp may not mean anything to those of you that didn't grow up Catholic on the IL side of the Mississippi but it might for those of you that did). When we were in grade and high school, Camp Ondessonk was the place to go! The cool camp counselors would come to our school each year and try and sell us on spending our summer with them in the Shawnee National Forest. The camp and surrounds were gorgeous! And, I could totally picture myself doing everything the other kids were doing in the glossy photos: swimming, riding horses, wearing face paint, having cabin competitions and pranks, sitting around the camp fire. Oh, how I wanted to go! But, who was I kidding? I couldn't even make it through a full night at a slumber party! How would I make it for a week-or two-or three-away from home?

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Rombach Farms







































This is my absolute favorite time of the year---when it's not 90 degrees! Remember when you used to have to dress warm under your Halloween costume? Not anymore. My not-so-heartfelt thanks to those of you behind global warming..... (Insert angry pro-environment tirade here). But, I digress..... Despite the heat, Bill, Willa, and I went to Rombach Farms to have some fall fun and pick up some pumpkins. This was my first trip the Farm, but Bill and his family ventured to the "Chesterfield Valley" every year for pumpkin picking. Some things are still the same, the old frontier fort, but a lot has changed too--most notably is that the Rombach Farm is an island in a sea of strip mall development. Wonder how long it will be before the Rombach's sell the farm?