Fearful that we wouldn't make it to familiar territory by trick-or-treat time, we drove from the far east side of Minnesota, through the desolate South Dakota (with a slight detour to Mount Rushmore), and across Frigid Wyoming for 22 hours in 1 1/2 days. It was seriously nuts. But the kids (all the way until we were within an hour of arrival) were better behaved than any kid travelers I have ever known. At the one hour countdown, for reasons related to exhaustion, all three kids started screaming at the same time. That was nuts, too. Five minutes later, though, all three were soundly sleeping. But apart from that episode, good travelers. Great, in fact. Even Clint, who is known to have a low threshold for ill-behaved children, acknowledged, at several time-points the kids' stellar performance. Notwithstanding, for many reasons, we were all so relieved to have arrived at my favorite childhood home late on Halloween Eve, not the least of which was to participate in the Halloween festivities.
Nicole as a vampire. She didn't want any face paint, and I wasn't brave enough to paint that gorgeous hair black. So she turned out to be a not-so-scary vampire. Shh, don't tell!
Here are my kids before trick-or-treating.
Oh, except Grant, who was boycotting Halloween this year. For more than a month, I had searched for the perfect Halloween costume for Grant's personality/interests. I asked friends and relatives, I looked at stores and online catalogs, and nothing seemed to fit. Dejected, I resorted to asking Grant what he wanted to be. Without even thinking, he said he wanted to be a cow. I'm not sure he really understood what we were talking about, but I don't think we understood him either. Somehow, the whole costume idea didn't make sense across the generations. Anyway, he immediately changed his mind and said, "Wait, no, a train." I later learned that he wanted to buy a train to play with for Halloween, not dress up like a train. All of this confusion just turned Grant into the most ornery kid who didn't want any free candy at all. When asked what he wanted to be, Grant would yell in frustration, "I be NUSSING!" When threatened with the prospect of receiving no bag full of candy due to lack of a cool costume, Grant replied, "I no want no candy. It go make my tummy sicky." (Hey Grant, can I get that on tape?)
So we set out on Halloween night with no costume for Grant. It was a little embarrassing at first, and one lady refused to give him candy until he told her what he was for Halloween -- which he didn't do, and which she didn't understand when I tried to explain. There's no way he's the first kid in the history of Halloween to go trick-or-treating costumeless. Besides all the kids had coats on anyway. Some adults should find a new hobby.
The only reason Grant even ended up going out for candy was because we couldn't leave the ornery thing home alone. We pushed Grant in the stroller, and when we rolled up to the first house, and he saw all his cousins get candy, with envy he said, "Actually, yes, I want to do Halloween." I knew he'd come around. Grant's like me: can't imagine life with no candy.
Scotty adopted Grant's bat costume from last year. It is one of my favorite costumes ever. Unfortunately, Scotty was ready for bed about the time we wanted to hit the streets.
Clint mostly carried Scotty from house to house, but occasionally let him run the distance from the driveway to the doorstep. Although he couldn't say "trick or treat," Scotty did say, "Ank you!" after getting his candy. Scotty loved Halloween, and I think his favorite treat was this blue sucker (which cousin Emily apparently loved as well.)
The best part of the evening was just being with the cousins. (The candy was just a bonus. I really think Nicole would forsake all candy, if in return, she could be guaranteed to play with her cousins every day.) Nicole grew up a little this year, and ran ahead of the adults as fast as her little legs could carry her from house to house. It was so cute (and so sad!) to watch. She's starting to look and act like a tween, minus the sassiness (my tolerance for sassy kids is even lower than Clint's tolerance for loud babies at church). She's at that age where she is understanding adult convesation, and looking up to her older cousins for inspiration, yet still so innocent and sweet. If she would just quit growing now, I think I could be happy forever.
Travis was a "dead skeleton," and Carly was a "dead fairy princess." Lots of dark themes this year, and one upside to the kids leaving babyhood. Maybe next year we can even watch a scary movie.
We have been to a LOT of places. We drive almost everywhere we go, and we schedule national parks/monuments into as many vacations as possible. That being said, Mount Rushmore was one of my favorites (behind only the Grand Canyon and Crater Lake). I wanted to put this picture on our Christmas card this year, since the likelihood of capturing a family shot before Christmas is growing dimmer, but I couldn't very well send a picture of headless Grant.
Thank you, Mr. Borglum!
