Boo!

Halloween this year was a blast. It was a balmy 70 degrees during trick-or-treating, which meant neither of the kids had to wear a coat over their costumes! Yay! It's always frustrating to me to spend the money/time on a costume only to cover it up with a coat so they can trick-or-treat in the snow.  We went trick-or-treating with Jamie and her kidlets for about an hour and half, and then headed to Lucas' house for his annual scones/hot chocolate.  He does it for his neighborhood every year.  We hit a few houses in his neighborhood too. 

This was Sean's last year trick-or-treating.  He will be 12 by next Halloween and too old.  Hopefully he will want to do a party or something. 

Ava received numerous compliments on her costume and she did a great job going up to each door and saying "trick or treat" and "thank you". A few houses scared her, but with me holding her, she was fine. 

It was seriously such a fun Halloween!  Now, the countdown to Thanksgiving.
 

Pumpkin Pickin'

We went with Lyle's family to a pumpkin patch in WJ last week.  They had donuts, hot chocolate and we got to pick our own pumpkins!  It was kinda cold as the sun was going down, but it was still a great fall activity!  We had been out running errands all day and I didn't bring the kids' costumes, a fact I was grateful for as Ava fell in the field several times. 

We all picked out our pumpkins and as we were leaving, the lights on the Jordan River Temple across the street came on.  It gave a peaceful feeling to the semi-quiet neighborhood.  We ate dinner at Gecko's (a local Mexican Restaurant) and crashed into bed.  What a fun night!

Asylum 49

I went to my first Haunted House last night. Asylum 49 in Tooele. It's an old hospital that is apparently truly haunted. They have ghost tours and ghost hunts January through July...then they start preparing for Halloween and the haunted house. I was extremely apprehensive about going. Jamie planned a girls' night and told me I had to go.

After dinner, we headed to the Asylum and my stomach was in knots. We all hit the port-a-potties before we went inside (Angie A. said she was going to die because there were so many germs...haha). It was fairly creatively decorated on the outside; we bought our "tickets" out of the back of an ambulance with lights flashing, our "tickets" were hospital bracelets, and the line was separated by IV bags and drip lines. I screamed right when we walked in the door. I had seen a shaking decoration (like the motion-activated ones) through the door when groups before us had gone in...so I was expecting it. What I wasn't expecting, was for the decoration to be an actual person who came up behind me and breathed in my ear and when I turned around, these freaky eyes were just looking at me. I was pretty much NOT ok through the first half. We had to go down this pitch black tunnel that had a sloping ceiling and the walls closed in on you...you couldn't see a thing. It was awful. There were plenty of chainsaws and amputated limbs, bloody walls and screaming "patients", but there was also some creative sections too that didn't scare me as badly; a maze made out of jail cell walls and decorated with only glow-in-the-dark Jason masks, outdoor corn maze, room of mirrors maze, black light carnival room and a circus tent maze...it took us forever to find our way out of that last room. Jamie stayed in front of me the entire time, letting me squeeze the life out of her hand and bury my face in her back. Rebecca S. clung tightly to MY hand...even though I wasn't much of a comfort as I was relying on Jamie for my own comfort. Angie A. just marched right ahead and bravely led our group through every maze and every room.

I can now say I've gone through a haunted house, and I can now say I'll never go to another. I just have no idea why people think that type of thing is fun!? It's a good thing we ended the night with ice cream at Cold Stone. Ice cream can cure almost any fear.

Boo!

Mariah and Brenna were invited to scare at their local Haunted Corn Maze for the second year. Mariah did their makeup and I did a photo session with them. I happened to be in the area helping with Hailee's wedding prep and doing her bridals...so it worked out perfectly!

Halloween Craft Time

Conference weekend is just around the corner. Only two days away! Again. Conference always seems to come so quickly...and I love it.

When Conference rolls around, that means it's time to get in touch with my crafty side and think of a fun holiday craft. While the men are being edified at Priesthood Session, the ladies in the family are eating goodies, laughing and crafting the night away! You remember our Easter craft, right? Well, this time, it's a Halloween craft. Here's what we're making! I'm so excited to decorate for Halloween this year.

Pioneer Day

Pioneer Day always begins a day early for us! We head downtown to reserve our prime spot for the parade and end up sleeping out on the street downtown. It's always exhausting...but fun for the kidlets and they love it!

When we first got there, Christopher had been down there since the night before and was running on very little sleep;  when he gets tired, he gets annoying.  Haha.  Lyle wanted to relax on the grass and Christopher wanted to stick the grass in his ear!

Which, he thought was annoying!  Christopher thought it was hilarious, though.

The city had passed a rule that nobody was allowed to set their stuff out on the grass until 6 pm the night before the parade and me, being the rule-abiding citizen that I am, sat in the car crocheting and reading for about 4 hours.  Ava played with her fan in her chair for awhile.

And she LOVED playing with her Uncle Christopher!  The rest of the night all she has to do was look at Christopher and she would start giggling.  I love the happiness in this picture...it's one of my favorites!

I'm not sure why this picture is sideways and I cannot figure out how to rotate it.  Ava watched Tinkerbell in the car for awhile before she got bored and asked to get out.

At some point in the afternoon, Fox 13 news came by and asked for an interview.  We threw one of Christopher's Uncles under the bus and made him be on camera.  Hahaha. 

At dinnertime, we all walker over to the new Harmon's at City Creek.  When we walked in, Aubre and I heard the Hallelujah chorus;  just look at those shelves!  Utter organization and neatness. 

Once it began to get dark, we all blew up our air mattresses and got ready for bed.  Christopher, Lyle, Sean and Ava and I walked down to the 7-11 for drinks and treats about 11:30 and by midnight were ready for bed.  Miss Ava had other ideas though.  She ended up not going to sleep until 2 am!  Sleeping out on the street does make it hard to actually sleep;  there are always cars going by and other people sleeping out who play all night long. 

I was soooo close to sleeping with her in the Pilot because she just could NOT stop looking at everything.  She fell asleep about 2 am and then about ten to 6 we were woken up by three garbage trucks roaring up the hill and a KSL reporter talking with some of Christopher's family;  so, Sis only got about 4 hours that night.

She loved hanging out with Christopher though!  She wanted him the entire time!  They would giggle and giggle.

Lyle's Aunt Vicki always comes down for the parade in the morning with her kids and her sister and mom.  We also saw Scott!  He was riding in the back of a pickup truck photographing the marathon runners early in the morning.

The Chick-fil-a cow came around to give out coupons and Ava immediately hid in Christopher's shoulder and covered her eyes.  She was not about to get a picture with him!

But, as soon as the cow walked on, she was okay with waving goodbye...

...and saying "peace out".

Ava's clingy-ness has reached epic proportions lately.  She wouldn't even sit with Lyle for two mintues so I could get pictures every once in awhile.   It's endearing and I love that she loves me...but sometimes, it would be nice if she would sit with him for longer than 10 seconds.

I always find it amusing that our religious leader who heads the parade (this year it was President Henry B. Eyring) gets a standing ovation...but the Mayor gets nothing...not even a smattering of applause.  President Eyring had more security than the Mayor did too.

Sean and Morgan LOVED giving high 5's to the police officers  as they rode their motorcycles down the parade route!

I saw a story on the news about this float and how they built it (with a crane) and I couldn't wait to see it!  I wasn't disappointed.  This was easily the coolest float there.  The dirigible looked like it was really flying!  And if you look closely, you can see three people sitting in a handcart, hanging below.

Ava had to wave at every float that went by.  She wasn't super happy about the load sirens, but liked the marching bands.  She's funny that way.

After the parade, we went to Aubre and Christopher's house. We wanted to go swimming, but the weather did not cooperate...too many rain clouds and lightning. So, we sat around for probably two hours trying to decide what to do with the rest of the day. We finally decided on eating at Golden Corral (delicious!) and spent about 40 minutes at the splash pad by the Valley Fair Mall. Thankfully, Ava slept the entire time and I held her so I wasn't in danger of being held over the fountains like Aubre and Lyle (remember what I said about Christopher when he's tired?). It was all in good fun, and everyone had a great time. Once we finally got home, we unloaded the car, took baths and fell in bed. We love the tradition, but it seems like the older I get the longer it takes me to recover! Totally worth it, though!