Fresh

Saturday we took a trip to Tyler, to the new grocery store by Brookshire's called Fresh. I was so excited, I had heard so many wonderful things about it. We wanted to have lunch there bc they have an area with ready made food and places to sit, inside or out. As we are pulling into the parking lot, I am seeing this beautiful building and Kirsten notices a John Deere tractor outside one of the doors. That's the door we decide to walk into so I can get a pic of the babies standing beside that beautiful piece of machinery. :) If you ever decide to visit Fresh, you might want to take a jacket, the first thing I noticed upon entering was how cold it was! And then the local produce sign. We walk past the produce and the meat (sampled a smoked turkey and discovered they are $40!), past a fix your own salad area with all kinds of fresh chopped veggies or salsa to buy and then we get to the ready-made food area, they had chicken parmesean, twice baked potatos, spaghetti, quesadillas, all kinds of food! They said we could taste anything we wanted and as many things as we wanted! One thing I found interesting is they keep it all cold and don't heat it unless you are going to eat it there. Then we see a sandwich making station and a dessert station and there was an outside grill. The babies and I decided on Turkey sandwiches, mmmm, were they good! They really loaded on the turkey! I got mine on some kind of rosemary bread with bacon and toasted. It was so good! We decided to eat outside, it was so windy, the babies had to keep chasing the napkins! Then began our shopping! My that store is huge!! They had samples everywhere and employees everywhere! In produce we were told that they would cut anything we asked them to for tasting, they carry knives in their pockets for slicing! We decided to taste the cheapest apples and oh, they were so good! We bought some! bought some HUGE grapes after tasting them! Found some bins that were full of organic sugar, spelt flour, pumpkin seeds, animal crackers, sesame sticks, wasabi peas, granola, just all sorts of things with an employee present to help or to give you samples of any of it! There was a bakery with $30 cakes! and all kinds of breads, you could taste any or all and if you bought a loaf, they would slice it for you. You should have seen us there! We had Kayson in the stroller with an older child pushing it, a big racecar buggie with Keegan and Cayden *driving* and a small "costumer in training" buggie with an older child pushing it! lol, I am sure we were a sight to behold! I told the babies we were a parade! We sure got plenty of stares that day! lol only one stare seemed malicious, everyone else was smiling or curious. All the employees seemed very patient with all my kiddos, talking to them, making them feel special, making sure they got samples too if they wanted them. Once when Glenn took Cayden to the restroom, I was kinda looking lost I guess (I was wondering which aisle the canned pumpkin was on) bc a worker asked what I was looking for, took me straight to it and even asked how much I wanted, took it off the shelf and put it in the buggy for me! took us at least 4 hrs to eat and shop and just enjoy the experience! Every grocery store should be so enjoyable! We came home exhausted, with a van full of groceries and heads full of memories! :) I am already wondering when I can go back and if I can skim grocery $ out of every check to save for another trip out there in a few months.