Halloween 2014

I didn't used to love Halloween. When I was a kid, of course I did. Because what kid doesn't love playing dress up and getting free candy? (I especially have fond memories of the Halloween costume parade at school. Neither of the two elementary schools that my kids have attended have allowed costumes on Halloween. It makes me sad for them.)
But when I hit the ripe old age of you're-too-old-to-trick-or-treat, Halloween became a lot less appealing. When you are a teenager Halloween is all about haunted houses and scary movies with your friends. And though hanging out with friends was desirable, the spooky activities were less so.

So it was only when I had kids of my own did the appeal return. Turns out that dressing up my littles in Halloween costumes was equal to the fun of dressing up myself when I was a kid. That Halloween magic...it was back!

Strangely enough, the magic has only grown as the kids have...despite three of them being full-fledged you're-too-old-to-trick-or-treat teenagers. And that has everything to do with the neighborhood that we live in. The whole place turns into a street carnival...haunted houses, themed houses (Lord of the Rings this year), houses with bonfires and handing out hot chocolate, over the top spooky decorations, etc.  It doesn't matter if you are 4-years old or 18, you are welcome to trick-or-treat here. Even the adults are out in force, and not just to shepherd around younglings. They want to be a part of the revelry too....often in costumes of their own.

So without further ado...

The title on the costume package said "Arctic Princess." The marketers ain't fooling nobody...she's an Eskimo. And happy to be so.

Brandon came home from his gymnastics workout with two teammate buddies in tow...

Julianne's big Halloween debut was a week ago at the high school Halloween Dance where she and her date Jackson, dressed up as a little old couple. (More pics coming soon...) On the actual night, she rummaged through the costume box and came up with the makings for Little Bo Peep so she could go to a "costumes required!" Halloween party at a friend's house.

Rebekah stayed in Logan for Halloween weekend and sent home this pictures among stories of a basketball game/Halloween party, an Institute Halloween dance, a themed dinner with the guys that live across the hall and then games till all hours of the night.

One of my very favorite Halloween traditions states that Heather and her clan join us for all the spooky neighborhood Halloween fun...this being our fourth year. And within that tradition, a BFF picture on the front porch.

Heather claims she was not going to dress up but at the last minute her daughter Morgan made her up into an "evil enchantress." Which I thought went well with my "Maleficent." Can I just say I'm glad I don't have horns in real life? Cause those things just get in the way. Wings too.

Heather convinced me to go through Shadows of Fear, the haunted house in the neighborhood that raises money for charity. In its third year, it only gets more popular each Halloween. So far, though I've enjoyed the atmosphere of it all, I haven't ever had the guts to go through. But I was informed that if we had a "princess guide" with a super, special glowing wand, we could go through the haunted house in a less scary, kid version tour where the creepy monsters don't jump out at you...in fact, many of them will give you high fives and comment on the awesomeness of your Maleficent horns. That being said, the place still scared the crap out of me. Lilian too. That is one seriously impressive haunted house! My favorite part? When the creepy monsters took a break from scaring people and came out front to do the "Thriller" dance in the street. It's not Halloween without Michael Jackson's "Thriller"...just saying.

Geriatric Halloween

Just like Rebekah during her junior year, Julianne and her friends decided to make the girls choice Halloween Dance a wardie adventure. So Julianne, along with her "core four" buddies Taylor, Lauren and Jessie asked four fellow wardies Jackson, Jordan, Jacob and Austin.

Their costumes of choice? Escapees from the retirement home, aka the geriatric crew, aka old people. They all looked fabulous and I've heard from numerous sources that they kept up their geriatric routine all through the dance.

At their day activity they carved pumpkins because well, Halloween. But they also went to Johnny Rockets, an old timey themed diner. And the night of the dance they had fondue for dinner and then played Bingo after the dance, all in honor of their elderly personas. Sounds like they had a great time.

 Jessie and Austin, Julianne and Jackson, Jacob and Lauren, Taylor and Jordan

Autumn is my favorite...

...And seeing as how I've already documented the many and varied reasons as to why this is the case, I won't go into it now. Suffice it to say, I'm thoroughly enjoying autumn this year. It seems to be lasting longer than usual, the color change and subsequent leaf falling taking plenty of time...almost as if they are savoring the blue skies and perfect temperatures as well and are in no hurry to give way to winter.

So it was that when we had a four-day weekend for Fall Break recently and Rebekah came home from college to spend the time off with us, I got it in my head that we must celebrate. Fall and family.

I have never been to Frightmares at Lagoon. So seeing that we had season passes this year, we headed over on Thursday afternoon. And it was delightful. Crowded...but standing in line in cooler temperatures rather than broiling in the summer heat was much preferable. The place was decked out in autumn and Halloween decor. And the trees...oh, the gorgeous trees! The Sky Ride was especially awesome gliding through those trees.
And because it was cooler outside, rather than summer sandals Lilian wore boots. And they had a bit of a heel on them. Which meant that miracles of miracles, Lilian was just tall enough to go on the roller coaster! It was the best. day. ever.

Friday after going to yoga with Julianne and coat shopping with Rebekah (and hallelujah, the girl actually decided to go function over fashion...Logan is COLD) we decided to check out the local hay maze.

 Last year was our first time and we were decidedly impressed. This year the thing was even more elaborate. And other than my claustrophobia moment when crawling through a pitch black tunnel with numerous turn offs and dead ends (and did I mention it was dark?) with visions of bales of hay overhead collapsing in on me (breathe, breathe, breathe) we had a great time and laughed a lot. Well, until the girls insisted we go through the tunnel for a second time.

Saturday involved stopping at a pumpkin patch and letting Lilian pick out some favorites to turn into jack-o-lanterns. (It also involved a yoga class and shopping for Brandon's church clothes and a date for Rebekah and a lunch with friends for Julianne and a temple shift for Bryan and then capped off with the adult session of stake conference. But I'm guessing you aren't as interested in all that...)

Also stuffed into Saturday in little pockets of time here and there, we got crafty. Rebekah had been wishing for some Halloween decor for her apartment in Logan and I had just seen some cute mason jar pumpkin type luminaries on Pinterest...so we decided to try our hand at making a few. They turned out pretty well, I thought.

Sunday we were late for stake conference. Late because we were frantically trying to make sure that not only was everyone ready in Sunday best but also that each had a change of clothes packed and also a picnic lunch. Stake conference was in Bountiful so it was decided that we'd make a trip up Mueller Park Canyon in the mountains above town after our meetings concluded. Though we'd spent our weekend going from one fall-like activity to the next, this was the first time all six of us had been able to participate together.

Ahh...family and fall. We done celebrated good.

Trapped in my own home

I am typing this from my hiding spot on the floor under the window of my computer room. Said room is right off the front door with the large window affording me a view of my front yard, the street just beyond and of course, the walkway that runs parallel to the window and then up the front steps to my door.

A few minutes ago while sitting at my computer desk a flash of red caught my eye and I glanced over only to see a door-to-door sales guy wearing a red cap making his way up my walkway. Without even thinking twice, I hit the mute on my computer (silencing the playlist I had been listening to) and dropped to the floor like my life depended on it and then slithered my way over to the window like a snake hoping that he hadn't already seen me. And then I waited as he rang the doorbell once, twice. Trapped, I lay there wondering how long I should wait before the coast was clear. What if I got up too soon and he was still standing there? What if he had already seen me, knew I was home and was waiting to give me a condemning stare when I popped my head up again? It's now been a good ten minutes. Surely he's long gone by now, yes?

Wait. What? 

I, a 41-year old woman hiding out in my own home...literally laying low under the window so I don't have to deal with a door-to-door salesman? How ridiculous is this?

I so need to get a "no soliciting" sign....

Bingeing

We signed up for both Hulu Plus and Netflix this week. And yes, I realize that we might be one of the very few families left in the country who hasn't had Netflix already installed. But wait, maybe I need to back up a step.

In February of 2013 Bryan got tired of the hassle that is DirecTV. He's not much of a TV watcher on his own and despite the presence of a fairly large TV in our basement, he tends to watch anything he is interested in on his admittedly fairly large computer screen, on-line. Realistically, no one in our family watches a lot of TV. You're more likely to find us with book in hand rather than in front of the television. But there are a few random shows that the kids and I like to follow. When we cancelled DirecTV Bryan said we could install Hulu Plus for current shows and Netflix to wipe out the need for renting movies or buying TV on DVD.

But then we never did it. And that was okay. I gave up on one of the shows I follow. And found different ways to watch a couple of others. (Though Hulu without the Plus is frustratingly limited, just saying.)

So this week I finally pushed the button on the whole deal. Why was I waiting for Bryan to set it all up? I mean, really...how hard could it be. Not very, it turns out.
(This is what happens when you are married to a computer genius...you tend to leave any and all technology related issues to him.)

But here is now my problem....and one of the reasons why my television adverse husband says he procrastinated for over a year and a half, installing Netflix in our home.
My admission:  I am binge watching "Scandal."
There, I said it.
Six episodes on Wednesday. Four yesterday and five today.

So now I'm trying to decide if Nexflix is a blessing or a curse.
I've been a fan of "Grey's Anatomy" for many years. Call it a guilty pleasure if you must. "Scandal," in its 4th season, is written by the same writer and I heard that if you liked one, you'd like the other. So when experimenting with my newly installed Netflix, I decided that "Scandal" might be just the thing to try it all out with.

All hail to Netflix for allowing you to jump from one episode immediately into the next when you find yourself at a gasp-inducing cliffhanger. Unfortunately for me, the writers at "Scandal" tend to put those in nearly every episode...

But now I am rushing through the episodes so quickly, so desperate am I to find out what happened, that they are all starting to merge together in my brain. No anticipation, having to wait for a week to discover "what the heck????"

And being productive around the house? Seriously?
(I did actually pull myself away long enough to vacuum, dust and do laundry yesterday. Brandon continues to get to gymnastics daily and I've made dinner the past few days. So hey, I'm not totally slacking.)

However if I'm being entirely truthful, I've been known to binge read books as well. (Ever hear the phrase "it's so good I can't put it down..."? That would be me.) So yeah, maybe this is more about my lack of self control rather than about Netflix...

Homecoming 2014: This Is the New Year

I'm experienced now. Julianne is my second child to make her way through all these high school dances and their elaborate asks and answers. So when Lance wanted to set up his official Homecoming ask in Julianne's bedroom, I knew to make a quick run through so as to ensure there was nothing too girly or embarrassing laying on the floor, and double check that her bed was made.

Julianne was delighted when she arrived home that night and within the next few days started researching dress ideas on pinterest and getting her own elaborate answer ready to deliver to Lance's house. (I wish I had a picture....it was a Scrabble game board with all the connecting words spelling out synonyms of YES.)

Originally Julianne's thoughts for a Homecoming look revolved around Vintage or Old Hollywood Glamour. However when we stumbled across a new boutique in Bountiful and found the perfect dress there, we ran with it. Whether it translated into either one of those styles Julianne was going for, I'm not sure. But she indeed looked beautiful!

Rebekah came home for the weekend, most specifically to help Julianne get ready and watch the send off. Kind of different I'm assuming, to be on the opposite side of things this time...

Lance showed up right on time, flower in hand and looking very dapper. Boys are so lucky, don't you think? In years past boys also had to pin corsages on their date's dress. Maybe that was a bit on the awkward side and that's why the wrist band was invented? Regardless, girls still have to endure the hassle of trying to get the boutonniere pinned on correctly and firmly with a minimum amount of blood loss from pricks to fingers. Luckily Julianne seems to have mastered the art, despite this only being her second experience with it.

Don't they make a good looking pair? These two have been good friends for over four years now, doing plays together at both Centrestage Theatre and at the high school.
(And interestingly enough, Lance's mother and I went to high school together in Taylorsville back in the day.)

Julianne has been raving about the great time she had with Lance ever since. One more fun memory to add to the numerous ones she has already of previous dates and doing so many shows together. I'm glad they enjoy each other so much.