This is Halloween, This is Halloween

This Halloween Reed and I were literal zombies :) ...We had taken a family vacation to Florida and were tempted to stay there for Halloween, but needed to get back for Reed's class Tuesday night and none of the reasonably priced flights on Tuesday would have gotten us back in time. So we found a crazy early flight on Halloween that would get us back home in time for trick-or-treating and we were able to spend the evening with Reed's parents, which made Halloween feel like we were keeping tradition. Each year we do dinner/soup with them, take the kids around (well one kid, until this year ;) ) and then come back and help pass out candy while we watch a Halloween movie (although this year we skipped out on the movie and headed home to get settled and get some sleep. We did watch part of a movie while unpacking a bit though.

We woke up Halloween morning at 4:30 am Florida time (2:30 am Utah time), left the house there by 5 and left Orlando on our plane at 7:20am....woof! The only flight that worked flew into LAX and then we had a layover and flew into SLC at 2:30pm. The kids were really good and fortunately all of our Delta flights had great movie selections - some fun Halloween ones too-that kept us all entertained.

    

   

When we landed at LAX it was super cool to see the arial view of the city and the Hollywood sign up on the mountains - I have only been to the Bay area and northern CA so this was a fun treat to finally get a peek at LA. Jude also entertained us during our layover with his greatest blowout yet. Thankfully, there was a sweet woman, who happened to be a labor and delivery nurse on the way to see her granddaughter be born, who gave us an extra pair of hands through the cleaning up process. I was also grateful for the roll of plastic bags I keep on hand, cause they definitely came in handy. Also, I am grateful it happened on our layover and not on the plane!

Once we arrived in Salt Lake City, Ross was waiting for us at the airport. He totally went the extra mile to come in the airport and give us a hand with our luggage/kids, which was SO nice and helpful. Once we got to Ross and Lynnette's house we got the kids ready for trick-or-treating, Ate a yummy dinner that Lynnette made, took pictures and then we were off.

Eden was so excited and knew exactly what to do! Things I always want to remember from the night:

EDEN: Eden was dressed as Elena of Avalor - her favorite new Disney princess (she was Darth Vader last year, so we are trying to learn how to embrace the girly princess thing, haha). She saved her own money for about 6 weeks of so and bought her Elena dress (before we knew that was going to be her costume). Then when she stopped changing her mind about her costume every day and settled firmly up Elena, we went and got the accessories. The Halloween night was a little chilly, but despite my best efforts to get her to wear a coat, she wouldn't because she wanted to look just like Elena. She wanted to go up to the doors all by herself and made sure that we stayed a good distance back. She would only let us go up to the doors that had doorbells too high for her to reach so that we could help ring them, but then she would promptly and anxiously say, "Hurry! Go back down!" She made sure to say "thank you" and "Happy Halloween" as she left each door. She could have trick-or-treated for hours!

[ P h o t o D u m p] - excuse the black/white and color repeats! I can't never choose between the two!

JUDE: I wanted to do a themed costume for Eden and Jude. but when Eden decided on Elena there was nothing from the show that I really felt excited about doing for Jude. I don't really know why, but I just got this vision in my head of him as a mummy with his out of control hair coming out the top and ran with it! It took a lot longer than I had expected though, to slap those strips of fabric on a onesie, but I was super pleased with the outcome. It was one of those things that actually turned out how it was envisioned. We ran into one of Reed's best childhood friends and his wife taking their little guy around and got some cute picture of him and Jude together. When we actually started Jude's trick-or-treating debut, he was asleep after the second stop, haha! I only realized it, when a woman told me that my sweet little girl was asleep. For some reason each person that didn't know Jude, kept calling him a girl, haha. Eventually, he woke back up, and some cute little old lady said, "Well, it looks like she's been to the hospital." in her cute little old lady voice. I didn't have the heart to correct her about Jude being a boy or that his costume was supposed to be a mummy and not a hospital patient (although I could totally see that too, haha). So I just said, "Yes, she does!" Hahaha.

It was one for the books. So fun watching my children enjoy the same Halloween traditions that I enjoyed as a kid and watching that same excitement that I had, run through them.

Ross drove us home that night and on the way I was sitting in the back seat in between these two precious people that Heavenly Father has sent to me and Reed to raise. Looking at them is surreal...I just can't believe they are here. That I am the mom now. They are just the most amazing and sweetest little people. I couldn't have ever imagined them up.