Halloween 2011

We didn't have school this year on Halloween which was really fun for the boys.  They played all day and then we got ready for Halloween night.  I made these little ditties to bring to the party.  I got the idea here. 

Cute Lincoln dressed up as Harry Potter.

Hunter as Indiana Jones.  I don't know where Palmer was during our little picture taking session, but I didn't get one of him before the festivities.

My oldest brother Steve.  I loved his costume!  His wife came up with some really fun Halloween costumes.

Josh and I were Bert and Mary Poppins. 

My two youngest brothers were "nerds" :)  The funniest thing was that they used Pokemon cards for their nerd costumes.  My boys and the rest of the cousins think Pokemon cards are the coolest thing ever. 

My sister and her husband were characters from a black and white white movie (so creative right?!)  Their daughter was the cutest ballerina.

 

My other sister and her husband were the oldies of the group.  They were so funny and kept us laughing all night. 

My oldest brother and his wife were Frankenstein and a mad scientist.  Their kids were a ghost, witch and robot. 

My sister was a gypsie (her husband was out of town so we were so sad he wasn't there, he loves Halloween and always comes up with good costumes).  Their kids were an Egyptian, two vampires and two pirates.

Everyone looked so cute!  Another of my brothers came later with his family.  He and his wife were a cowboy/cowgirl.  Their kids were a china girl, super girl, and superman. For some reason I didn't get a picture of my parents (probably because they were busy making homemade donuts and pizza).  They were army guys and looked so great.

This was McKay's first time trick or treating and I went a little crazy with the camera. 

Josh started making faces in the pictures...so I told him that he'd be on the blog...

Isn't he the cutest little trick or treater!?

This picture totally fits McKay, Mr. Independent. I love it.

He was all about the candy. 

After we got home from trick or treating we played lots of fun games.  I was in charge of "Spooky Eyes".  I got it last year from this blog. 

We always try to get a family picture of everyone in their costumes. It isn't always easy, but we got one this year. It was a great year for Halloween! Now, on to Thanksgiving!

Some Autumn Straglers

 Here are the last of the autumn activity pictures before my actual Halloween post.  I decided to just clump them all together.  Our ward had a Trunk or Treat on the Saturday before Halloween.  It was so fun!

 I had all sorts of plans to turn the back of our van into "17 Cherry Tree Lane" (from Mary Poppins), but I got back a bit late from the ballet I went to earlier that day so it didn't happen.  Oh well...

 McKay must have had a million suckers that night.  It was fun to see all of the cute primary kids (and their parents) dressed up in their Halloween costumes.

 We had our traditional "Dinner in a Pumpkin."  I did a post with the recipe back here, if you are interested (you know, for next year :)

 It is always a fun dinner.

 Now that kid is thrilled with his dinner in a pumpkin :)

 We also had a family in our ward over to decorate Halloween cookies. 

 This family is so neat.  I have loved getting to know them.

 Their parents are just amazing and we had a blast hanging out with them.

And finally, this is what I gave my visiting teaching ladies this month.  You know, if anyone wanted to use the idea...next year :) 

Here is what they looked like from the back.

I know I have said it a million times, but our Halloween season was so much fun!

Witches at Gardener Village

 I am trying to hurry and post my Halloween pictures (while my computer is working), so I can get on to November (a good idea since it is already the 11th)!  I love the Witches at Gardener Village.  It is such a fun tradition and we don't always get there, so I was happy that we were able to do it this year, especially since we don't live as close as we used to.  We saw some new witches this year that we haven't seen before.  Here are some years past, 2010, 2008.   

 We did the scavenger hunt you can print off online to find the witches doing certain things.  Palmer was pretty serious about the whole thing. 

 This tree was covered in green and purple lights and the boys just loved it.  There was a stage right under it and the boys went up there and ran around.

 McKay is so funny, when I would try to take his picture he would automatically bring the top of his stroller down.  He isn't too into having his picture taken.

Hunter still had some of the remnants on his face of the wiskers we painted on for his Indiana Jones costume.  His face looked like it was so dirty!

 Hunter and I got separated from the rest of the family, so we took some pictures together.

 We ended our night  with a cookie from the bakery.

Such a fun night and tradition.

Salt Lake Cemetery

 In keeping with Nelson Halloween tradition we put the Salt Lake Cemetery on our Autumn Bucket List.  First we stopped to get Square Pumpkins at Artic Circle for dinner and then we were off.  I truly do love this cemetery and am always overwhelmed with how peaceful and beautiful it is.  Is that strange?  It is one of the high points of Salt Lake City and you can see out over the valley.  Here are some other times we have gone 2010, 2009, 2008. 

 We used to have to bring our map to find the graves, by now we know where they are.  It is always fun however to find one that we haven't seen before.  There are so many church history graves stones in here that we couldn't possibly see them all in one night. 

 The boys' hair was still crazy from their Halloween parties at school.  Lincoln's was grey and Palmer's was getting very puffy from being slicked back all day long.

 The sunset was just perfect and we found this really great tree that had shed most of it's leaves.

 We had to take a minute out from our history hunting excursion to play in these beautiful fall leaves.

 They had the perfect "crunch" to them.  We don't have many trees around our yard so we haven't had much of a chance to jump in them (which was also an item on our bucket list).  We had to take advantage of this great bit pile.

I sure love this tradition.  There is such a reverent feeling around this old cemetery and I think the kids have grown to love to come here as much as Josh and I do.  It is great to take a second and talk about each of the graves that we visit and the people they represent.  We try to tell any good stories about them.  This year I got to tell Palmer some neat stories about Porter Rockwell.  I am gong to need to get some more for next year.