Southern's First Halloween

Southern got to celebrate his first Halloween this year. It was a bittersweet holiday since we lost Dustin's maternal grandfather last year on that day. I'm sure he's watching over us though and can see his great grandson. We miss you, Paw-Paw! http://lchahnwyatt.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

Southern was dressed as a little western sheriff. My mom, Josh, Lane, and Cody came over to help us celebrate the day. We had a lot of fun. We started the day off by doing a little sight seeing. We stopped by the Historic Faust Street Bridge since the Faust guys had been wanting to see it. It was a gorgeous day. The girls and Southern stayed on the bridge, but of course the guys had to go exploring by the river. Dustin said he caught a crawfish and helped a fisherman by getting a huge fish off of his hook.

We then headed downtown for the festivities. We parked the cars and got out in front of The First Protestant Church. It's such a pretty church, and we learned that it was established in 1845. The actual building itself was built in 1875. New Braunfels has so many hstoric gems, and we keep discovering new ones even after living here for 3 years. Next door was the Walter Faust House. He was one of the founders of New Braunfels (That is also the name of Josh's grandfather - no relaion though). It is now owned by the church and is used for education. We walked by it to get to the Faust Hotel. That was our next stop. It's a very old building, built in 1929, and it was pretty neat inside. Due to the recent change of ownership, the brewery was not open, but soon they will resume making local beer.

Following the visit to the hotel, we stopped by the oldest operating bakery in Texas, Naeglein's. It was built in 1868. We continued our walk around downtown, but all that walking soon made us hungry. We headed to Clear Springs Cafe. Yum!

We then came back to our house where Southern got in a nap while we played horseshoes and sport toss (similar to washers but with little bean-filled sacks). We stayed outside because trick-or-treaters starting arriving. Southern enjoyed seeing all of the kids. We had princesses, super heros (my mom told one she liked his muscles, and he replyed "they're not really me"), animals, vampires, and even a box of fries. After all the kids left, we went inside to watch The Birds.

It was a great day. I can't wait for next year. By then Southern will be old enough to trick-or-treat!