This Is Halloween! This Is Halloween!

 

 Halloween is Wade's favorite holiday, he loves it more than Christmas! He loves decorating, dressing up, and candy. His decorations have been up all month, including lights, a jumping spider, and gargoyles. Wade and Kimberlea wanted to have a party this year, and they have spent the whole month planning and getting ready.

 

 

 Landon and Megan came as cowboy and cowgirl.

 

 

Delwyn loves to dress up for Halloween, I always feel rather silly. Delwyn has a Fred Flintstone costume that he wears most years. I refuse to be Wilma and wear a skimpy white dress, so most years I don't dress up, which is fine with me. Some years I have worn a witch hat.  About five years ago I made these costumes, not incuding the hats and shoes, which we bought. When Wade invited us to his party, I decided it was time to get them out again.

 

 

 Erin and Brent had these fabulous costumes-Brent as Ed McMann and Erin as the winner of the Publisher's Clearing House.

 

 

 Leisha and Phil and their 6 week old baby, Rhylee.

 

 

Robin Hood and a hunter, also known as the Kearns.

 

 

 Hallie and Cameron were from the Day of the Dead. Their make-up was really amazing!

 

 

The Sultan and Jasmine.

 

 

 Blake was Jack Skellington and Johnny was a lumberjack. Blake, Britta, Ryan, and friends came to the party for a little bit and then left to go trick or treating.

 

 

 A scary ninja also known as Ryan.

 

 

 

 Britta and her group of friends.

 

 

 

 Only the devil would make Gracie put on her Yoda costume again. She doesn't like it much and shakes and shakes to try and get it off.

 

 

 

 Wade and Kimberlea had a lot of festive Halloween themed food. They had homemade root beer with dry ice to drink.

 

 

Pizza calzones that looked like snakes,
 

 

 vampire homemade oreos, and

 

 

 

 spider ham and cheese sandwiches were just a few of the menu items.

 

 

 After eating, it was time for games. Everyone got a foam pumpkin to decorate. You could carve, or decorate with pompoms, ribbon, and glitter.

 

 This was a candy corn game. Contestants had a plastic spoon in their mouth. The object is to spoon up the candy without using your hands and then take it your partner at the opposite end of the room without spilling any of it. Caleb was very interested in the candy corn. I think he was hoping Hallie would drop some and he would get to eat it.

 

 

 Cameron and Hallie were the winners of the first round!

 

 

 Wade was pretty good at it, too.

 

 

Kimberlea takes her turn. We also played Taboo as a group. There was a lot of laughing, good conversation, and yummy food. This was the most fun we have had on Halloween!

Carving Pumpkins

 

It was so much fun to have Landon and Megan here to carve pumpkins with us! They have been excited and kept asking when we were going to have the carving party. We carved on Sunday night, it's still 5 days until Halloween,  I hope the pumpkins last that long. There was too much anticipation to wait any longer.

 

Ryan hates to gut the pumpkin! It is such a slimy job. Delwyn has done it for him most years, but he was on his own this time.

 



 

The kids always pretend to eat the guts. Landon said, "Pretend? I'm really going to take a bite." Yuck! I don't think it tasted very good.

 



 

Blake dumps the seeds out.

 



Landon gets serious about carving.

 



 

The whole gang hard at work.

 



 

Blake designed his own pumpkin this year. It was Jack Skellington from the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas". He did really well drawing up his own pattern.

 



 

The finished pumpkin!

 





 

Britta did the grim reaper. It turned out great, too!

 

 

Ryan's pumpkin was this cat pirate. We have collected quite a few patterns over the years and the kids looked through the designs for quite some time trying to choose one.

 

This is Megan's pumpkin. She did a Halloween gnome.

 



 

All of the pumpkins lined up on the table. Ryan wanted to know which one was my favorite and I couldn't decide. They are all great! Pumpkin carving has come a long way since I was a kid and we just used different shapes to make eyes and a zigzag mouth. Now there are so many patterns and the carving can get quite intricate.

 

 

Landon and Megan got this Yoda costume for Gracie. She didn't like it too much, but she did let us take a picture.

 

 

A few years ago someone told Britta that pumpkin makes a good facial, so every year she rubs some on her face trying to make her skin soft and smooth. I wouldn't like it--it's too slimy and smelly for me!

 

 

Holiday traditions are fun! We had a great evening together getting ready for Halloween.

Fall Hiking

 

Jana Gunnell, Kim Perry, Kim's friend Jan, and I went hiking in Castlewood Canyon. It is close to home, only 15 or 20 minutes away. It is one of my favorite places to hike. We took the 5 mile loop up to the dam that broke many years ago. Part of the wall is still there.

 



 

We stopped for a rest on some big rocks near the dam.

 



We also saw this small waterfall. It was the perfect fall day for a hike!

 



About 10 days later we hiked Dawson's Butte down in Larkspur. This is Kim Warcholick, me, and Kim Perry. Kim Perry retired this spring from working with the school in Colorado Springs. She loves doing anything outdoors and knows a lot of great hiking trails. Jana Gunnell was also there and took this picture.

 



 

Colorado is such a beautiful place to live! When we returned from hiking, some people were having a picnic at the beginning of the trail. They told us another hiker had just reported seeing a mountain lion attack a deer and asked if we had seen it. Thank goodness the anwer was,"No!" A park ranger was getting out of his truck to go investigate. Jana, Kim Warcholick, and I were a bit scared and were glad this happened at the end of our hike and not the beginning. Kim Perry is very brave and said she wouldn't let that stop her. I'm glad I have such a brave hiking buddy!

Swimming During Fall Break

 

Blake and Ryan were so excited when they found out Austin was coming to Denver for a conference. The thing they wanted to do most with him was SWIM! Blake was on the high school swim team last year, he was a lifeguard this summer, and Ryan swam on a Castle Rock city team this summer. They wanted to show Austin what they had learned. They really look up to Austin because he swam on an intermural team at BYU-I and was also a lifeguard.

 

Ryan was practicing the butterfly, even though it is his least favorite stroke.

 

Blake wanted to have a race with Austin. Austin was worried that he is out of shape because he hasn't done much swimming lately and when he does, it is playing with Claire and not doing laps. They were pretty evenly matched and I couldn't see the end of the pool to see who won.

 

 

 

Britta was looking at the pictures I took and was happy to see that I had a picture of them train swimming. I was going to delete it, but she liked it, so I kept it.

After all that racing and lap swimming, they wanted to relax in the hot tub.

 

Lots of brotherly conversation and laughing.

 

Britta was doing handstands and other tricks.

 

 

Next they wanted to do some synchronized swimming. They were very graceful.

 

They leaned to the side and swam to the edge one by one. 

We also had fun in the lazy river and on the tubes, but I was in the pool by then and didn't get any pictures of that. After swimming, we had to hurry home and shower so we could get Austin to the airport. Thank you DaVita, for bringing Austin home for a visit! We made the most of every moment!