Is It Halloween Yet?

My children all know that Halloween is my least favorite day of the whole year.   I don't like scary movies or scary costumes, and Halloween seems to abound with those -- and I'm not creative.    When the kids would ask "What can I dress up as on Halloween?", I would (in desperation) direct them to the box we kept downstairs -- full of old clothes and maybe an old costume or two.  When I had influence, I tried to encourage them to be a hobo, a dancer, a cowboy, a clown, or a princess.  (I have never liked having to dress up in a costume -- I know, I know - I'm not much fun when it comes to things like that. As a result, I was not very creative when it came to Halloween and coming up with ideas for the kids, but I knew that an old cowboy shirt and hat could turn you into a cowboy or a long dress could turn you into a princess.)  Over the years, they learned to be creative on their own or get ideas from their friends.   Roger's job was to make sure that we had pumpkins to carve for Halloween at Family Home Evening.

On Halloween night, I would prefer to curl up in a corner of the couch upstairs and either read a book or watch a light-hearted Disney movie or something.  It's not that I mind passing out the candy, but we live in a split-level home, so you either have to camp out on the stairs or run up and down them all night.  When the kids were younger, the door rang constantly.  Parents from all over Enoch would bring their children to our street and then they would trick or treat the four or five blocks to the elementary school for the PTA-sponsored Halloween Carnival.   Now a lot of parents with younger children do "trunk or treat" in the church parking lot or stick to their own neighborhoods where they know their neighbors.  We still buy Halloween candy and open the door and pass it out when the doorbell rings, but there aren't quite as many "trick-or-treaters" in our neighborhood as there used to be, so it is a little quieter. 

But I couldn't resist pulling out some pictures of Halloweens past and taking another trip down memory lane in our "home-made" costumes . 

 

Halloween 1980

Lynnette, Chad, Jennifer, & Carolyn

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1982

Chad (at the back)Jennifer, Lynnette, Carolyn, & Kyle Athey, a cousin

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1984

Back: Jennifer & Carolyn

Front: Lynnette, Monica, & Chad

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1986

Monica, Carolyn, Lynnette, & Jennifer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1986

The Athey Boys

Front: Devin, Shaun, & Derek

Back: Kyle and a couple of neighbors

 

 

 

Halloween 1988

Nicole, Devin, Derek, Kyle, Monica, Shaun

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1990

Front:  Monica & Nicole

Back: Carolyn & Julie Hulet

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1992

Matt & Devin Athey

Nicole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1996

Jayli Zingelman

Jodi Zingelman & Nicole as a two-headed monster?

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1998

Me, Nicole, & Monica

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1999

Nicole as "Sassy Smurf"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because we no longer have kids at home and none of our grandchildren live close enough to come "trick-or-treating", we don't have much incentive to decorate for Halloween.  But Halloween is coming, and just so my kids (and grandkids) won't think Grandma is a complete "Scrooge" went it comes to Halloween..........

     Happy Halloween!

THE ELK HUNT - Part Two

I wanted to include a video that I made of Leif "bugling" for the elk. Since we couldn't figure out how to include it on the original blog, we had to give it a spot all to itself. Enjoy!

THE ELK HUNT, 2ND WEEKEND

This hunt started at 4:15 am Friday morning when I took the lead rope and flashlight to the corral, caught my horse and took her to the trailer. We picked up Leif Condie and his horse and gear and headed for South Creek Canyon on the south end of Beaver, Utah. The stars were shining and the weather was cold but we were dressed for it. When we got up the canyon, we saddled the horses and headed up the trail in the dark. It was just beginning to get light and the air was fresh and crisp. As it got lighter, the mountains were beautiful, with yellow and orange leaves on the aspen trees, mixed with the green pine trees.

Leif began to bugle for elk with his elk bugle and his cow call. After about an hour of riding up the canyon, we had a bull elk bugle back to us. We got off the horses and with the gun ready, bugled back. In about 30 seconds a majestic five point bull elk walked out between the trees, its head high. He was about 80 yards away and stood and looked at us for about 45 seconds. I have a spike elk permit so this was much too big of elk for me to shoot at, but what a great experience just watching him. He turned and walked back into the trees and we continued up the canyon. About 10 minutes later, we again had a bull bugle back to us. We stopped and bugled to him. He bugled back and was coming closer. He bugled again and Leif saw him. He was about 120 yards away and looking at us just over the top of a big rock. He was a four point and calmly watched us for about 5 minutes. I watched through the rifle scope and, after a while, he stepped out and watched us for a while, then turned and went back into the trees. We hiked up the mountain side to see if we could see any spike elks with him. There were none – my luck. We came to a summit and looked over several mountain valleys.

 

The rest of the day we hunted in mountain valleys and meadows in what turned out to be a beautiful afternoon.