October 30, 2010: Halloween

Last year, Griffin knew what he wanted to be for Halloween. He had put on his snow hat (that has flaps that cover his ears) and a pair of swim goggles and just KNEW that he wanted to be a WWII pilot. I figured that he still had nearly a year until that would come into fruition and that he would most certainly fall back on a Star Wars costume as he does every year.

It was coming closer to Halloween and he was sticking with his WWII pilot idea. Now we came upon the trickiest part of the costume: the leather jacket. After talking to one of my co-workers, she said that she had a jacket and goggles from her grandfather who was, in fact, a pilot in World War 2, and the she would be happy to lend them to Griffin. I couldn't believe how fortunate we were! Even though the jacket was a bit big, Griffin loved it and felt extra special since it was authentic. (A few people when they saw him thought he was "Flick" from "A Christmas Story," but I didn't tell him that.)

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year--and we're fortunate enough to live in Utah--trick-or-treating universally was on Saturday. Unfortunately, there was a major storm coming in for Saturday night. And after living in Utah for over 20 years, you think I would have learned the #1 factor in Utah weather: if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes. I took out Griffin, Ellie, and Liam Elliott in the van. They were absolutely drenched, but I figured if we could get it done before it got dark, at least it would be warmer and safer. Of course, after about 30 minutes, they were done and we went home. And then, 30 minutes later, it stopped raining for the rest of the night. Remember that #1 factor? If we would have just waited, it would have been fine. Griffin was done. Ellie, of course, went back out with Liam and then another set of friends.

Needless to say, we were NOT lacking for candy.