Halloween 2013

The Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins.  The only finished product I got a picture of was Aubrey's pumpkin.

On Halloween Aubrey and Addy had a costume parade at their school.  You can read all about that fun time by clicking here.  Later that day the Jr. High had a dance/party which Emily claims was horrible.  I wasn't there because I was helping in Addy's class with her party.

That evening we went to our friends, Ethan and Allison's, house for "Gross Dinner".  There wasn't much gross about it.  It was all fabulous!  I had asked Ethan what I could bring and he said "Something gross that we can eat."  I interpreted that literally.  I should have known better.  Ethan is a professional chef and his idea of gross was  awesomely funky fun yet fancy Halloween themed food.  I was kinda embarrassed to bring in our bloody fingers (complete with fingernails) and our bloody used band-aids (graham crackers with cream cheese centers and red food coloring).  Ethan's food did not disappoint.  It was so delicious! 

Our cute little neighborhood bunch.

At the very most last minute Aubrey decided she wanted to be a mime.   She made a rather cute mime if I do say so myself.

Addy had been planning on being a little girl zombie for months.

Zac went as Uncle Si Robertson.  

(yes I know that is a Phil beard but that was the only beard I could find after going to several stores)

Emily was informed by Mario and Luigi the night before that she was going to be Princess Peach.  Thankfully Allison had a Princess Peach costume we could borrow.

After dinner we all went Truck or Treating around the neighborhood.

We live in the most awesome neighborhood for trick or treating.  It is so fun to walk around and visit with everyone.  Here are the kids at one of our neighbors where they had to play a game in order to get a full sized candy bar.  Then at our friendly neighborhood dentist's house we not only got toothbrushes but we also were treated to freshly made scones and delicious raspberry butter.

Then we stopped at another neighbors house and got the scoop on why the police had to make a visit to the hood. We were there for about 20 minutes and totally lost all our kids.  Thankfully we found them down the street at the neighborhood Halloween night gathering place having hot chocolate.  It was a fun night with friends!

BONUS Flashback Friday - Ghosts Of Thanksgivings Past

 Thanksgiving 1992

I had just graduated from High School a few months before and had just moved from Dallas Texas to Salt Lake City Utah (a move I'm sure my parents never thought would be permanent, but hey - I'm still here in Utah 20 years later!).  My dad and Farrah drove up to spend Thanksgiving in Utah with me.  On their way they got caught in a horrible snow storm and had to spend the night in a church somewhere in the middle of nowhere.  But alas, they finally made it!  We had fun together, just the three of us.  We made our own Thanksgiving feast and tried to take a picture of ourselves.  It didn't work out too well as you can see above.  That was way back when you had to buy actual film for your camera and then take your pictures to be developed and wait until you got them back to see that you took a picture of yourself with your head cut off.  We also went to see the lights at Temple Square:

Thanksgiving 1996

Steve and I had been married for about a year and a half and were living in Utah.  Farrah was going to BYU.  She had just had her wisdom teeth pulled and we literally picked her up from the dentist and drove to Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with my Great Grandma Erma Arthur and our great Aunts and Uncles and cousins.

 Thanksgiving 1998
We spent this Thanksgiving in St. Louis with Steve's family.  Zac was a year old.  In the second photo down it is funny to see how sparse our little table is.  When we get together now there are so may of us we are all crowded together.  While we were there we went to see my brother-in-law Ed play in a hockey game. 
 

Thanksgiving 2003

We spent Thanksgiving in Dallas that year.  Emily and Zac helped Papa deep fry the turkeys.  We had two sweet little babies, Aubrey and Tia, who had just been born that March.  A few years before my father, being the cunning man that he was, came up with a plan to insure that his family was always together on Thanksgiving.  He instituted a tradition of taking all the male members of the family to the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving day.  It worked up until the year he decided to up and move to Utah himself.

Thanksgiving 2004

Dallas Texas.  A dear friend of ours, George Brown, who several years before served as a missionary in our ward in Dallas, came to spend Thanksgiving with our family.  He wanted to repay my parents for the kindness they showed him as a missionary, so he bought the tickets and took all the guys to the Cowboys game that year.  We didn't know it at that time, but this was our last Thanksgiving in Dallas as my parents moved to Utah the following summer.

Thanksgiving 2005

My parents first Thanksgiving in their new house in Utah.  I didn't take any pictures of this event, I only have the pictures my sister took of our family.  As you can see in the bottom picture, we gained a child - my nephew Gabe.  Bart and Farrah and Gabe came from Dallas to spend Thanksgiving with us.

Thanksgiving 2008

Our first Thanksgiving since my dad passed away in January of that year.  We had just moved into our new house.  A few months before we had moved out of our old house and into my mother's basement while we finished up the house.  My brother Sam had just returned home from his mission in Mexico City a month before.  My mom's house was crowded and we were trying to hurry and finish our house so we could move out of my mom's house before Bart and Farrah and their boys came to stay with her for Thanksgiving.  We just barely made it and just moved in a few days before they arrived.  Click here to see the original post of that Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving 2009

Our first Thanksgiving to host in our new house.  It was a pretty quiet one.  Just our family and my mom and Lauren and Sam.  Click here for the original post.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a pretty big group over to celebrate Thanksgiving with us that year.  We had our friends, who are also my mom's across the street neighbors, Curtis and Kami and their boys over.  They were smack dab in the middle of remodeling their kitchen.  Also my mom and Lauren's friends Dr. Jen and her girls.  Click here for that original post.

Thanksgiving 2011

We spent Thanksgiving in St. Louis last year.  We had a blast.  That Thanksgiving included hiking, art, history, animals, guns, arches, dancing, war games, Thanksgiving dinner at Jack-in-the-Box, Black Friday on the floor of the Troy Walmart pharmacy where I am pretty sure I contracted bronchitis, a flash mob, and tons and tons of family and fun.  Click on each day for those posts.  Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6.