Halloween

Our first Halloween with Penny was a great one. She was so damn cute in her costume. She was, hands down, the best looking Lion around, as seen here.

Just hangin' out in m'lion costume, no big deal.

I am a fierce lion, hear me ROAR!!!!

After dressing her up, Mel brought her to visit me at work, where, of course, she was a huge hit. However, between it being about 117º in our office, and the lion costume being made of something that feels like wool, we had to shed the costume for the "baby's first halloween" onesie that Grandma bought for her, and the adorable punkin beanie that Sheila (a work friend) gave her.



As for my costume, I decided to be Lars, from the movie Lars and the Real Girl. For those of you who know nothing about this movie, please watch this trailer:



This is a great movie. It is one of the best movies of the past several years. It's heartwarming, it's emotional, it's funny. As you can see here in the following pictures, Bianca, my Brazilian missionary girlfriend came to work with me. I actually got the idea from Court, he was also dressing up as Lars and creating Briana, for his Halloween party Friday night. So, since I pretty much look exactly like Lars, I decided to pilfer his idea for my work party. A lot of work (mostly by Court) went into the Bianca part, but Melissa and I put a few finishing touches on her. And without further adieu, here we are:

Bianca and Lars chillin' in Rob's office.

And here are Lars and Bianca enjoying the beautiful weather in the park.

Mel dressed as Joy from My Name is Earl.


Bianca really liked hanging out at work, partying with all my coworkers and eating delicious food. It was a fun day.

After work, Mel and I went out to get hit the town (or get some food, shop at a thrift store and then came back home to give away candy to strange kids). Since Mel had already dressed up as Joy from My Name is Earl, and since Court was escorting Bianca to his party, I decided to dress up as Earl Hickey for the evening. The sad thing is that I didn't look at all like I had a costume on—apparently Earl and I are the same person.

The real Earl and Joy.

Earl, Joy and lil lion Penny.


We found some cool things at the thrift store, then picked up our favorite Mexican food from Cotixan (mmm, bean burritos and taquitos). We then ventured back to the pad and watched some scary movies while waiting for trick-or-treaters. And we waited. And we waited. So I have a question: where the crap are all the trick-or-treaters in the world? Does no one do that any more? Is our politically correct world to delicate to let the kids go out and get a bunch of free candy? I mean, we had a big bowl full of Snickers, Milky Way, Twix and plain M&M's, and we had TWO groups, totaling about eight kids come to our door. What kind of a world do we live in where kids can't go door to door and let strangers give them candy? It's appalling. As a youth I remember taking out my huge pillowcase, and spending hours upon hours walking the streets of Provo, collecting as much candy as possible, before going home for the big inspection, and then the big feast. Why don't people do that now? If we had a sugar-free, Atkins-friendly holiday, would more parents take their kids out? Is my little neighborhood of four-plexes not good enough for the kids in La Jolla? I'd like to get to the bottom of this, but, my laziness will get in the way, and I have a feeling I'll never find out the answer.

I realize that today's world isn't that safe, and you don't want your kids roaming the streets alone, but I have an idea for all the parents out there, "TAKE YOUR KIDS OUT TRICK OR TREATING!" Isn't that one of the greatest joys as a parent, walking your kids door-to-door, showing their cuteness off to the neighborhood, making them happy, and then, once you get home, pilfering the good candy for yourself? What happened to this tradition? It angers me. It saddens me. I just feel bad for the kids. Come on parents, do it for the kids.

And one more rant from me before I'm done. Why is it when you order an adorable Snoopy costume (for newborns) online, when you get it it looks like it's for a newborn hippo? There's no way there is a newborn human big enough to fit in that thing. Seriously. It says 0-3 months, not 0-3 years! I just don't get it. We could probably save it for a year and use it for Penny next Halloween.

Ok, all right. Enough ranting. We had an awesome Halloween, and we hope that all of you did too. Now bring on Thanksgiving and all that blessed Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, punkin pie, Lions' football and everything else.

Until next time.