Halloween Happenings

He enjoyed hiking up the pants we got him for his costume.

Usually Atticus can barely touch the pumpkin guts.  He finds it too gross.  This year we turned it into a gross game so they were much more excited about it.

"Diii-tust-ing!"-Jonny

Eating brains!

Their faces in these are the best.

Zombie Attack!

Jonny's face.  Like she is so disgusted at being interrupted.

We had patterns and he carved his own this year (Dan helped a bit, too).  With proper safety gear, of course.

This was at our ward Halloween carnival.  The boy barely dares put his face in the water so this didn't work out real well for him.

Apparently when it's humid out, the jack-o-lantern you carved will rot to mush in 5 days time.  So we painted some pumpkins the day before Halloween.  In unders.

We got to see Atticus in his costume parade at school on Halloween morning and watch him perform with his class.  That's him in his ghost costume behind Snow White.

This picture was sent to us by my father.  My mother is one tough cookie, but owls make her quite nervous.  This picture makes me so happy.  Especially how pleased my dad is by the whole thing.

Jonny discussing some Halloween things.

And Atticus telling a Halloween story from school.

Vermont

For my birthday this last weekend we went to Vermont.  We missed the peak of the leaves but it was still gorgeous.  Also, Vermont is weird.  It was like one endless canyon drive.  You'd feel like you were out in the wilderness and you'd round the mountain bend and there'd be a couple houses, or weirder, a school or a church, or a whole little main street of a town but seemingly nothing else around for miles.  It would surprise me every time even to see a house.  There was one where we'd been driving up a mountain for about a half an hour.  We'd seen a few houses along the way and then when reached the plateau of this particular mountain, it opened up to a cow pasture on one side and a big high school on the other.  It was hard to tell where anyone lived because everything was so tucked away on winding roads in all directions. 
I don't know how these people ever get to know each other.  Or how they get their groceries because I only saw one tiny little market.  (Tiny.  Like, think Doose's Market) I was also surprised by how tiny all the houses seemed to be.  I'd always envisioned Vermont to be kind of fancy and upper class.  But most of the houses we saw were small, rundown even.  We drove around a big loop through Vermont the first day and it was funny because toward the end of the day we started seeing houses closer together, like 5-10 within a mile, and we realized we'd made it to Montpelier.  It actually turned into a real town but still, more like the size of Kaysville, Utah.  I did see a real grocery store there, a car dealership, and a few restaurants.  I had no problem with any of it, but it was just not what I expected.
The first day we drove around the Northern Foliage Loop.  It was so pretty!  Rolling hills and gorgeous leaves.  That loop took us past the Ben and Jerry's Factory, (Dreams do come true!) and Cold Hollow Cider Mill.  Guys.  I don't know how I survived my life up until this fall without fresh, ice cold cider.  I could drink that stuff until I was sick and then have some more.

Got to share a bed with this little buddy on night one.

Not far into our drive that first day we stumbled upon a town of about 15 houses along one little main street, and a bank!  There was also a little farmer's market going on, so we stopped.  There were maybe 12 booths and less than 50 people, but we randomly parked right next to another car with a Utah license plate.  

Pretty gazebo and the bustling main street behind it.  (I sound like I'm mocking, but I would TOTALLY live here as long as Amazon delivered in a timely manner.)

The entirety of the farmer's market.  

We spent the first of many times playing in a pile of leaves.

Lunchtime!

So, if you take a tour of the Ben and Jerry's factory, you get a free scoop of ice cream.  And then you will still buy more ice cream.  And it will be glorious.  The free flavor that day was milk and cookies which I'd never heard of before.  It was good enough that I got another scoop with my Tonight Dough on a cone.  

They, of course both got something to do with chocolate, and probably cookie dough, too.

He is not crying over  a lost scoop.  He is crying because in the graveyard of retired/dead flavors, Dan scared him with a giant stuffed spider.

I couldn't get enough of this face.

I think this was taken outside Cold Hollow Cider Mill where we gorged ourselves on cider and bought some pure maple syrup and a few pieces of maple candy (insert Ross quote here) nearby.

Found a little lake to toss pebbles in.

My bunk mate for night two.  She's a lot trickier.  Kicks and wants to sleep right on top of my head.

Sunday was my birthday and we went up to the Von Trapp Family Lodge.  It's where the Von Trapps settled once they came to the United States.  It was a gorgeous spot and may be the closest I ever get to living out my Sound of Music dreams.

Laid around in the grass while my kids basked in childhood.

Went walking through a golden forest.

Plenty of leaves to jump in.

A few of my favorite things.  (I love even more that Atticus had to get in on the kissing.)

She was sleepy.

 Happy face.