Halloween 2008

(Enjoy the movie above, filled with Halloween photos)

Halloween 2008 was definitely the WARMEST that we've ever had in Colorado. On most years, it has been snowing or very windy and cold, but this year, it was almost HOT! We enjoyed three seperate activities for Halloween this year!

October 25th --> the ward Halloween party. Always a blast, the kids really enjoyed it. As a part of the tradition, we partook of the many different types of chili and rolls while enjoying music and watching the rest of the ward dressed up in "80's" outfits. There were definitely some members that could easily fit right back into that era! After dinner, we enjoyed games and prizes before heading out to the parking lot for "trunk-or-treating". This is a very fun tradition where all the kids go from trunk-to-trunk and collect goodies. Many of the trunks are also "dressed-up" for Halloween and it is a lot of good, safe fun for the kids!

October 31st (part 1) --> Having been gone all week to a conference in Santa Clara, CA, I returned home and met the family at Avago just in time for the annual "cube-or-treating". Each Halloween, all of the kids in the lab arrive between 3pm and 5pm for trick-or-treating through the isles of cubes. It was the most fun ever this year since our kids are old enough now to not get too tired while walking from cube-to-cube collecting candy. They really scored this year and its always fun to see all of my co-workers kids dressed up. This was Jantzen's first real experience with trick-or-treating. We will never forget the look on his face when he recognized he first bowl of candy. He immediately dropped his pumpkin pail, and sprinted (as fast as a 16-month old can sprint) to the bowl, grabbed a sucker, shoved it into his mouth (with the wrapper) and smiled as big as he could. We then took the wrapper off and gave it back to him. He was done for the night and needed no more trick-or-treating. According to his face, it was the best day of his life! (Little kids are the greatest!!)

October 31st (part 2) --> After collecting WAY more than their fair share of candy, we rode back home, dropped by Papa Murphy's for our annual "jack-o-lantern" shapped pizza, then spent the evening watching movies, eating pizza, and handing out candy for the neighborhood kids. Our kids prefer handing out candy to going trick-or-treating down our street, and we've kind of turned the evening into a tradition that is a lot of fun!