Houston and the Blue Bell Factory

Hurray for vacation so I can take annual trips to Houston (this was my 3rd year in a row visiting Houston in November). David, Julie and Bailey were kind enough to let me come for 5 days. There was plenty of fun with hiking - rather nature walking, shopping on Harwin Street, playing games, watching football and Dancing with the Stars, taking walks, and going to the Blue Bell Factory. Blue Bell ice cream originated in Brenham, TX, which is only about 30 minutes from Houston so one afternoon we headed there for a tour. It was really interesting to learn the history and see how they make the ice cream, however the best part was the free scoop at the end! Since only 19 states have Blue Bell ice cream, not everyone can enjoy it's goodness. So I'll tell you, it is really good ice cream (although not as good as Baskin Robbins). Although Bailey doesn't look to enthused in the pictures, she liked the tour as well and she loved her small vanilla scoop.

I did it!

I stayed home this year and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. This may not seem too shocking of a task unless you are familiar with the insanity of my subdivision on Halloween. A newish subdivision, sidewalks, and houses which are fairly close together = ideal situation for trick-or-treating. Each Halloween it seems that 1/2 the valley takes advantage (1/2 is probably an exaggeration). Usually there are students from the college criminal justice department who stand on the corners amidst flares and direct traffic. This year there were no traffic directors, however still plenty of people, cars, and chaos. From about 6:00-7:00 I had a pretty steady stream of kids coming to my door...344 to be exact...until I ran out of candy and had to turn people away. It was actually a much more pleasant experience then I was anticipating and I enjoyed seeing all of the kids in their costumes. I also got tons of compliments on my pumpkin. I'm not sure how much they count coming from kids under the age of 10, but I was glad they liked it.