The Coolest Ward EVER!!

When we lived in San Diego, our ward was phenomenal. Every single ward member went to every single activity. It really felt like a family. The Sunday before we moved up to Idaho, they had our family come to the front of the chapel at the end of sacrament meeting, and the whole congregation sang, "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again" to us. It was a ward tradition. I sat up there crying during the whole hymn. I wondered if I would ever again be in a ward where I felt so loved, wanted, and involved.

We were so lucky to move into this neighborhood because of this ward. I am so in love with it. Soooo much fun. It's like one big, happy family.

Our ward really gets into our annual trunk-or-treat. Everyone (except for me, you know, because of the whole I-hate-wearing-costumes thing) dresses up. Everyone decorates their cars. Everyone brings candies for the younguns. And everyone brings tasty food for the adults. I'm always a fan of tasty food.

Last year, I had to take all three kids by myself, in the, like, negative 20-degree weather. It was killer. (Ben was on a business trip.) This year, happily, I had him there to help me.

He took some pics of the kids in the front yard before we headed over to the church. Mikey:

Now see? This is what he was supposed to look like when we went to Ben's work party. Micah wouldn't wear the whole ensemble for me, but he sure as heckfire did it for his daddy. Sheesh. I'd like to take credit for the cuteness of the costume. Well, half credit. Half credit goes to my mom for buying the horse part for Dylan when he was two. I get half credit for coming up with the idea to put on fake legs with cowboy boots attached to them. I think this costume is hilarious. My kids have really hated wearing it. Maybe because it weighs like twenty pounds with everything on like that.

The three oldest together:

Dylan is such a dork. He's holding this toy that he dismantled in his hand. It was like a koosh ball caterpillar. (I love koosh balls. Soooo fun. I used one when I used to do test reviews with my students. I would ask a question and throw the koosh to a student. He would answer and throw it back to me. I also had them toss it to each other when we read aloud. A student would read as much as he wanted to [he had to read at least a full sentence before passing it on] and then toss it to someone else, who would then read. I had to be careful with this activity. The kids would throw it really hard at each other to be funny. So I enacted the rule, "Throw rainbows, not bullets.")

So back to the koosh caterpillar. Dylan took the squishy part out from inside, and then he would squish it in his hand, with a little part coming out and making something resembling a bubble, and he would say that it "looks like a fart." Because you can see farts??? No....

I love this one, because you can see his little mouth smiling under his mask:

I took a shot of Gagey inside. I cannot get enough of this costume (I also cannot get enough of him):

He's so cuuuuuute!! Aaaaand the costume seemed comfortable. It was plush inside and out. None of this plastic-ey, felt-type material inside and fake plush on the outside.

Example of how much our ward gets into this activity:

Brandon and Richard L. We had one couple dress like people from Kiss (and they served the most amazing meatballs I have ever tasted). I couldn't even recognize our bishop and his wife, who were making delicious, homemade scones for the adults. He was a witch, and I can't remember what she was. So cool.

We took two strollers, one for Gage and one for Mikey. That ended up being a really good decision:

Mikey would have had a hard time walking in his twenty-pound costume. He refused to wear the hat anymore past the pictures in front of the house.

One family even had a little fishing curtain activity:

As you can see in the above picture, Gage ended up not being a fan of his stroller. He was tired. He ended up falling asleep in my arms.

The activity was a blast, and we had fabulous weather. And I didn't have to do it alone this year, thank goodness. I love you, Ward!!