All things Halloween....

Friday night before Halloween, Joshuah and Stuart went and visited a Haunted Corn Maze.  There are heaps of them and they have actors dressed as zombies, ghosts, weirdo's etc who jump out at you and scare you...(not for me!).  One guy started up his chainsaw and chased Stuart, who sprinted past Joshuah, leaving him for dead!! They said it was an experience and apart from the chainsaw guy, not too scary!

Saturday morning Stu played his first game of golf in the US, where he discovered that you can hit the ball a lot further when you are playing at altitude!!

His International cricketing career is also at an all time high. He scored his first International double hat-trick the other day ..against a group of 6 year olds who'd never seen the game let alone played it....but apparently it still counts!!

On the Saturday afternoon before actual Halloween night (Thursday, Oct 31st), we went for a walk through Old Littleton, a suburb near where we are living.  We had no idea what we were walking into, as there were kids of all ages (from 2 weeks - 16 yrs) all dressed up in their Halloween costumes, with their parents, wandering in and out of decorated shops, Trick or Treating. It was HUGE!  We didn't take any photos for obvious reasons, but at the corner of each street was a decorated lamp post, in the spirit of Halloween.

 The parks nearby were beautiful with their changing colours and leaves falling everywhere,

and we had travelled the bloody length and breadth of Canada and the US looking for timber-wolves, when all we needed to do was walk down the main street of Littleton and pat one!!!Yep, a true blue, dinky di timber-wolf!

That afternoon we drove up to Evergreen with Sharon and Lindsay to the Little Bear Saloon,

to watch a band (Relapse) where one of the guitarists is a member of CITEL.  We were meeting Tanya and Phil (other Aussies) up there.  It turns out there was another band playing as well that night AND it was the Annual Halloween Costume Contest.  So we did our bit to get dressed up...

and had a fantastic night.  Great music by Relapse,

the best company...Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!!!

lots of dancing, plenty of beer was consumed (sadly, water for me!!) and the largest plate of nachos EVER!!

As the next band, Angus Mohr, an Irish Punk band began playing,  more and more people turned up and the night slowly morphed into one of the weirder (but still great fun) nights I have had in the US!! Angus Mohr were fantastic, particularly the bagpipes.....

and they obviously have a big following.  I was captivated by the bald headed, tattooed blokes in kilts non stop dancing, until these characters turned up!

but the night turned out pretty well for the boys....what a catch!!

Click on the arrow to watch the movie that kind of captures the night....strange but true!

 

The next morning things were back to normal, with Stu and Lindsay heading up to the mountains for a day of snowboarding/skiing, pretty happy to be back into it.

During the week Stu and I went and visited a few Halloween shops to see what it was all about....OMG!!!

 Stu had a Halloween dress up after school on Wednesday and donned his Captain Australia outfit...weapons weren't allowed, which was his Kanga Cricket bat....

but this evil mask was....nightmare stuff!

Thursday night was actual Trick or Treat night and after the big buildup of the previous weeks, it was a bit of a let down.  We had a few kids knocking on the door but not what we had anticipated.  Saturday, Stu played golf again...this time with me as his caddy.  I know NOTHING about golf....(although I knew last week when Stu played golf with Lindsay and Phil, that asking what time kickoff was is incorrect), but had a great time driving the buggy,

and checking out the beautiful scenery...

What a view from the Golf Course....

I love the vibrant red of some of the trees.

Last night we went to a Murder Mystery, with a group of people I had never met...Stu knew one of them.  Our characters were a Roman Gladiator and a Geisha Girl.....but we weren't sure who was supposed to be what....so we tried this combination first.....

 before agreeing that perhaps we got it wrong, and so went for this combination....I think it was a smart move.

It was a great night and always good to meet new people.....even if they were not who they really were??!!
I think I have mentioned a few times how beautiful the Fall colours are....and I have loved it...BUT....I think it's called FALL, for a reason!!!  Those bloody leaves FALL off the trees and this afternoon we spent hours raking the backyard, ending up with about 20 rubbish bags full of leaves.

On a different note, I woke up this morning to the lovely news that my cousin Ben and his wife Kathy welcomed a little boy into the world last night...Thomas Kerry.....a lovely choice of name...and congratulations to Kerry and Angela on being grandparents. xxx
It never occurred to me when we moved to the US that language would be an issue, but our accents create plenty of misunderstandings. Here are a few before I forget them! I call them "Gotta love the Aussie accent!!"
1. Talking to a bloke tonight about how we love seeing BISON (buffalo), and have lots of photos of them. He replied with.. "Basins? You take photos of basins?"  Yes we do!!

 2. Joshuah has lots of accent problems at school, but he came home from school the other day and said a Freshman asked him "How many kangaroos do you own?". Joshuah, with a deep sigh said "None". Freshman: "Wow, you have NINE kangaroos?" Josh had no answer.

3. Stuart at school told a student, who was lagging in line, to "catch up". The kid said "ketchup?', Stu: "no, catch up" Kid: "ketchup??", Stu: "No! Catch up!! "Kid: "ketchup??? Stu: "WALK FASTER!!"

4. I have to tell people the house telephone number often...sadly it has lots of 8's in it.  American's don't understand we West Aussies when we say the number 8 and if I throw a double 8 in, then there is REAL confusion!! But what I don't get...if I'm asked my telephone number and they can't understand me when I say 8, what other number could I possible be saying????

Joshuah has been known to say....'the number between 7 and 9" and Stu went to a Macca's once and got so fed up with not being understood when he asked for a burger and fries that he said "I'll have a Number 8" which was a particular meal.  The guy behind the counter said "Number 10?".....Stu, a broken man, said "Yes, Number 10"!!!