Little Elm Pumpkin Hollow 2019

The sunset over the lake was spectacular. 

Little Elm is a neat place. It has tons of great activities and festivals. We've actually considered moving there for that very reason, but it is otherwise sort of out of the way for us for as far as our daily lives are concerned. We still try to make our way up there for a number of the festivals. We'd already hit the Autumn Fest, but now it was time for Pumpkin Hollow. I love it and Toby really does! We've been many years, but like other things, it was rained out last year and perhaps the year before. 

I thought it was a neat sign that as we were heading to the festival, the birds greeted us. As you know, we love black birds and how they line up on power lines, it is often the first sign of fall for us, along with the changing light. But it continues for quite some time and it never gets old for me. 

Look at them - almost all facing the same way.

The light was just wonderful this particular fall evening. There were birds like this on every part of this particular intersection.

We checked out the vendors and their little stands with a few games (somehow I don't have any pics of that) and candy, then headed over to the haunted hay ride.

Growing up in rural South Texas, I've been on many hay rides. We'd ride on a trailer stacked with hay like this to go Christmas caroling through town. It's nice to have a bit of that small town, simpler times here for our kiddos. Toby was happy to get on the trailer and we snuggled together as we made our way into the dark meadow and took in the sights. 

They used to have kids dressed up in costumes coming at you and things like that - more like a haunted house. Now they've got lighted inflatables and we decided that worked better. What we like in Halloween has changed in recent years - for the better. 

Now it was time for the walk into the woods on the trail lined on both sides with jack-o-lanterns carved by townsfolk. This was the best we've ever seen. 

A pic of Toby taking pics. 

Look at the detail on that nose! That's very hard to do with a thick pumpkin. Great skill there.

We liked the creative jack-o-lantern in the eye of the jack-o-lanterns. I'm not at all into the darker parts of Halloween, having seen how that can impact lives - spiritually and otherwise. 

It asks a lot of an iPhone to take pics when it's this dark. But I wanted to at least give a sense of the path outlined by jack-o-lanterns. (When the OS for the new iPhones stops making them self-destruct, I'll be happy to upgrade and should be able to take much better pics - overall but especially at night.)

I still like a happier, lighter, more traditional jack-o-lantern. 

This seemed appropriate. It was one of the last ones we saw. It sums up how we were feeling about our fall at this point - and beyond.

After the walk in the trails, Toby and the big kids went to the haunted trail (which was not at all gorey and did not have those things that we've come to find objectionable in haunts) and Anthony and I went to the playground. Fun was had by all, as they say. 

It was another great night in our fall celebrations. 

Thanks for reading!