Halloween 2007

Beth & a couple of her friends accompanied us around the neighbourhood on Halloween for 'Trick or Treat'. Like with the Kirkwood visit, I was able finish work early enough so that I was able to go out with Beth. One of the houses just up the road from us was heavily decorated & the owners were properly dressed up in their Halloween garb. Outside the house was a table with two zombies sat at it, but on the way back there were three. The girls slowly went up to them, but since they were all perfectly still they thought that the 'new' zombie wasn't real. That is until it got up & scared them big time - class!

Kirkwood Trick or Treat

This year I managed to finish work early enough so that I was able to go trick or treating in Kirkwood with Cheryl & Beth. The weather was a bit grim with periodic rain, but everyone had a good time collecting loads of candy. The adults weren't left out either with meatballs, coffee, & pizza being given away by some of the Kirkwood businesses.

Bull Riding at Eureka

We really enjoyed the rodeo at Eureka last year & so were really looking forward to going again. This was the the 15th Annual Backdraft Rodeo (the first was held on October 13, 1993) presented by the Eureka Fire Protection District Firefighter's Association.

We went to the Saturday night show (there are three shows over the rodeo weekend) & although the show was slightly shorter (there wasn't really any entertainment during the interval) it was sold out with people standing the entire time. There was a good variety of events, including barrel racing, bull riding, & the calf chase where all the children had the opportunity to win a cash prize. The Backdraft Rodeo is a Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association & American Rodeo Cowboy Association sanctioned rodeo, & all the competitors are real cowboys & cowgirls that tour the rodeo circuit competing for cash prizes & trophies.

The Oompah-loompahs have escaped for Halloween!

Cheryl wasn't at Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory (although I'm sure that she would have liked to have been!) but at the local shopping mall when she spied a couple of Oompah-loompahs wondering about. They were very friendly & even agreed to have their photo taken. Cheryl was surprised that they were so tall as they looked a lot shorter in the move :)

Grantsylvania

Grant's Farm runs a couple of special events each year, one at Halloween & one at Christmas. These are free to attend but the car parking was increased to cover the costs of putting on the special events. We thought that we would go to the Halloween event where Grant's Farm is transformed into 'Grantsylvania'. The venue has extended opening hours until 9:00pm with 'Grantsyvania' being open from 6:00pm onwards. The tram rides all take place in the dark with a 'eerie' voiceover as you travel through the park. There were displays including ghosts & ghouls as the tram was moving & just to scare people the voice over would direct you to look one way whilst Grant's Farm staff members dressed in black (so you couldn't seem them) would run along the other side of the trams screaming & hitting the vehicles.

When we got off the tram we were welcomed to 'Grantsylavia' by a spooky skelenton. We also had our photo taken with Dracula & a couple of witches. The park was kept in darkness with decorative lights all over the place providing low-level lighting. The Bauernhof had a free 'moster' themed disco where Beth & Cheryl had a boogie to 'The Monster Mash'! Since we arrived at Grant's Farm fairly early it wasn't really dark enough to experiance the tram ride properly, so we thought that we would take another ride now that it was really dark. This made it alot more 'scary' as you really couldn't see anything other than the displays & as you traveled through the park it got really dark as you moved away from Gravois Road (the main road running parallel to the first part of the tram ride). Just to spice things up, the displays were different than on our previous tram ride & the 'scary guys' were screaming & hitting the tram at different times!