There is nothing fun about closing the pool, and with the headaches we had over the summer with the pool, the last thing my hubby and I wanted to deal with was the final season closing, so we had been putting it off weekend after weekend. This being perhaps the only free weekend until November it was now or never. First things first, a new tarp needed to be explored, chemicals needed to be purchased, and the final step the actual closing.
I was persuaded to stop at the only video rental place left on this planet (I have not rented a video from anything other then a Redbox, in over 4 years), so we did a stop at Family video. If you haven't been to an actual video rental place in a while, take a step inside and relish in the memory of the old Block Buster stores, where walls are lined with movies, where you can physically hold the box in your hand slowly with intent, read the back instead of having a line of people hovering behind you to hurry the hell up, as you ponder at the wall of new releases usually out of stock. It was actually enjoyable. 1 video game, 1 older movie and 1 new release later we were walking out the door feeling quite satisfied with ourselves and ready to partake in an evening of movie fun. To make it all the more enjoyable, I only spent $6- and we have the video game, and one of the movies until Thursday evening. It's the small things in life that make me excited apparently...but I was thrilled.
Next stop, to find a new tarp. This actually backfired as I ended up getting one that was a tad bit to small, but when I purchased it I was thrilled. We ended up finding a $69- tarp on sale for $49-, I had a 25% off coupon and a coupon for a FREE screw driver set. (I am so glad I save these stupid coupons.) Anticipating a $30+ final bill, I ended up scoring the tarp and an 8 piece screwdriver set for $24-. I like that! How 25% off $49- is less then $24- I'll never know, but I'll take it. I left feeling satisfied, of course now we have a tarp we cannot use on the pool, but I am sure it will come in handy somewhere down the line. We ended up using the one from last year and it seemed to work out just fine. Finding pool chemicals was going to be less thrilling, but I did save myself $10-+ off my total with the chlorine return container and ended up spending $9- on closing chemicals rather then $20-. $5.99 for a bottle of what is basically antifreeze with a pool store label is absolutely ridiculous, but what can you do. Pool stores have the luxury of charging outrageous prices, simply because it is from a pool store and if you own a pool, (and we all know what a fortune it is to keep it up) you buy your product from the pool store to save yourself from messing something up. Go with the experts they must know what they are doing.
On the way home from these much needed pool stops we made our way to Hafner's Farm.
This store/farm is huge and has everything GREEN you can imagine.
Christmas time is like an evergreen bounty, summer is full of shrubs and trees, Spring features bulbs and flowers, Fall is all about the apple and pumpkins and they have them both in a big way. They also have a great little FUN fair and it's FREE, for the exception of a few activities. I made Gavin go, although he complained from the start he was tooo OLD for this kind of fun, he indulged me anyways.
First we watched a little magic.
Then we went into the not so scary haunted house.
I took a ton of pictures of the "not jumping out at you" haunts.
Then it was off to the Boo and Arrows...
TP time! He let me get a picture of him in this, but refused the cut outs and the kiddy hay maze.
Up next was a little ride on the wagon. Gavin got front row seating.
Look he is even smiling.
Then it was a quick trip to the petting zoo.
These goats were ready for some feeding! And get a look at this baby lama.
We skipped the pony rides and headed to the FREE cider samples and FREE apple slices dipped in Carmel. Both were divine. It was a wonderful cheep afternoon for about $4.25 we sure had fun.
Later that evening we enjoyed a few scary movies about Zombies, and thinking it would not be too scary; (I was WRONG), Gavin and I watched the Exorcist. He was up all night and I was forced to sleep with him....my neck is still killing me. Guess those old classics are more terrifying then the scares of today. It was fun to watch all over again, especially since we saw Linda Blair at Scare-a-Con, and I don't think he was to damaged.
Sunday proved to be a wonderfully amazing day, and I will post about that later!
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