Halloween 2020

I wasn't sure what Halloween would look like this year, but for the most part, Halloween itself was fairly normal. Our kids and most of the kids in our neighborhood still dressed up and went trick-or-treating. This year we had:

Albert Einstein:

Hercules the dog from the movie, "The Sandlot":

Buddy the Elf:

and a beautiful butterfly!

Sean and I even dressed up together this year as White Goodman and Fran Stalinoskovitchdavidovitchsky from the movie Dodgeball! haha

Charlie was a good sport as Snoopy!

This year was a little different at school, in that the Halloween parade was done virtually, and class parties were done by the teachers instead of parent volunteers. The kids were excited getting dressed up for school that morning!

Our neighborhood did its own little Halloween parade in the park by our house, since the school one was virtual. We all lined up in a circle in the park and the kids walked around showing off their costumes. 

All of the kids went trick or treating with friends.

I loved Bode and his friends' themed costume of 'The Sandlot' this year!

These two have trick or treated together since they were babies!

The kids all came home and sorted out their candy. They were all happy with their haul! Jackson and Bode took trick or treating very seriously and both got a TON of candy. They weighed it and they both got the same exact number 8.3 lbs!

Halloween this year felt like a gift of almost normalcy for one night. It was nice to celebrate and have fun and mostly forget the cares of the world. I am grateful we were able to still celebrate in some of our traditional ways.

Davis's Halloween costume: Buddy the Elf

I've thought for a few years about how cute Davis would be as Buddy the Elf for Halloween. Last year he didn't want to dress up as Buddy, but this year he did, and I was so excited! I looked online thinking I'd probably be able to find a good costume, but all of the ones I could find were not very cute and very cheap looking. I decided to try my hand at making his costume, and it turned out to be one of the most fun things I have ever made! 

For the jacket, I just used felt and made my own pattern by tracing one of his sweatshirts and adding on length for the split front. I expected this to be a train wreck, but it came together so easily! I added the faux fur collars (which I learned faux fur is so messy when cut) and added the cute gold trim detail. I bought a pair of yellow leggings online, borrowed the belt from an old Santa costume we have, and made a simple hat. 

The hardest part was probably creating little elf shoe slipcovers that we slipped over a pair of his nikes. I bought some faux suede I was so happy with how it all turned out, and so was he!

He looked adorable as Buddy!

 

After trick or treating, I was sad for Davis to take off his costume! He was the cutest Buddy the Elf. It seriously made me so happy seeing him in his costume. 

Pumpkin carving

 Here is this year's pumpkin carving lineup! I thought they all turned out really cute!

Coyote Gulch backpacking trip

A few weeks ago, Sean, Jackson, and Bode went on a backpacking trip to Coyote Gulch with Dave and his boys. Coyote Gulch is located in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. They came home with some amazing pictures and said they had such an awesome time!

After driving 40 miles down a washboard road, they camped near the trailhead late at night. The following morning they hiked 10+ miles to Jacob Hamblin Arch, entering Coyote Gulch via "the crack." In the gulch you hike along the river the entire way. The boys chose to walk in the river almost the entire time, while Sean was proud of the fact his socks stayed dry. They camped at Jacob Hamblin Arch that night and had an awesome camping spot all to themselves. The following morning they hiked the "sneaker route" back to the car, which required using ropes to exit the canyon. 

After making it back to the car, they hiked to a few cool, and very narrow slot canyons. They did "Spooky" and "Peek-a-boo." In the Spooky slot canyon, it gets super narrow-- only 10 inches wide in one spot. 

They all came home with lots of stories to tell and talked about how beautiful it was. They had such a great time! I'm grateful they were able to have this fun experience together.