A week before Halloween. Jason and I were invited by my lovely sister to go with her and the rest of our family to Cochran Mill Nature Center for a Halloween adventure. Dad and Jamie were unable to attend due to dad being out of town and Jamie living in LA. There was a costume contest, games, face painting, owls, birds, snakes, canoe rides, and so much more. Jason and I immediately went out and got costumes for the event. Below are pictures... meet Charlie Day and Alice:
We may have had too much fun and took too many pictures :^)
After getting ready, we drove over to the nature center. We purchased our tickets and soon realized we were the only ones nearby wearing costumes. At first we were somewhat worried we'd look odd, but then we decided we came to have fun and no one could ruin that. We got super excited and made our way to purchase tickets for the event. We were then instructed to wait for the hay ride to take us to the nature center. As we waited, adults and kids began to show up in full costumes. Hooray! We're not the only ones who wanted to have some fun!
Soon we heard a vehicle making it's way toward us. I didn't take a picture of the hay ride because we were terrified--there on the back of the trailer was a woman in a full clown costume. She was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. We hesitantly stepped up and made our way as far as possible from the clown. Soon the wagon was packed with people. We then made our way to the center.
After getting off the hay ride, we discovered we were the first wave of people to arrive. Mom, Ash, Chris, and the boys had not yet arrived. We visited the Birds of Pray section and met Uncle Fester, Gomez, and Morticia. There was also an owl that was creepily amazing! So cool! Soon a second hay ride showed up with the everyone on it. We walked down the hill to greet them. Apparently our costumes were really good--it took them a second to recognize us. We hugged the kids and said hey. We then all returned to the birds of pray. A guy was there teaching us about one of the birds. He asked us to guess the bird's weight. We aren't sure what Jace guessed, but it was more than what the bird was. Apparently the bird weighed about a pound. He tried to explain to Jace that the bird had hollow legs, but Jace had difficulty understanding. It was really cute though. After the birds, we made our way to the nature center. below are pictures:
Pumpkin painting/drawing below:
Alligator below:
Jordyn's tattoo:
After tattoos we decided to eat dinner. We purchased some hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and cupcakes. Below is the cat cupcake that the creepy clown on the hayride reportedly made:
A pictures of Jace after his face was painted and before he got in a canoe:
Us being weird:
Jace and Jordyn goofing off with their trick or treat bags:
A picture Ash snapped of me randomly. Side note... when we went to order our food, the lady taking our order said, and I quote, "You are adorable!" I was super proud! Costume was a success!
Picture taking time:
The picture below is of Ash and I waiting for Jordyn to go on the canoe ride. Side note: when I first read Ashley's text about us going to the thing, I thought she said "There are hay rides, face painting, nightmare canoe rides..." WHAT?! I was so excited about a nightmare canoe ride! Apparently just a night time canoe ride... totally misread that.
After canoe rides, we decided to go to the costume contest. I thought I might enter. We asked a guy how old you had to be to enter (mostly kids were dressed up). He asked how old I was and said I would go at the very very back with the adults. Apparently there were four of us adults. I went back to the line and decided it was best not to enter---the kids should really be the ones participating only cause there are only four of us adults. I went back and joined everyone. Turns out I wasn't the only adult to think this... no other adults decided to go ahead. We all opted out. Great minds, right :^)
Soon it became dark. We decided to go to the haunted house. As we waited in line, Chris and Jordyn decided not to go through the haunted house. Jace, however, informed us that he was going to get in the middle of them and start attacking all of them. Ashley immediately yelled "No!" She then explained as the rest of us laughed silently to ourselves that you can't do that at a haunted house. Jason tapped my arm and pointed to a man digging a grave beside the line. If you weren't paying close attention to him, he would slowly sneak up on you and scare you. Luckily, we never got caught off guard.
I was nervous about the haunted house--I had never done one before. We had debated doing one later, but I was nervous... so this kid one was a good test run. Once it was our turn to go in, the lady at the front asked how scary we wanted it. We could pick levels 1 through 5. Jace immediately said 5. Ashley said 1. They compromised on 2. We walked in and immediately heard the chilling sound of small children screaming. We then saw two very tiny kids run out terrified. This did not start Jace or I off very well for our first haunted house. To get in the haunted house, one must crawl through a tunnel. Yes, crawl. Did you see the outfit I had on? Crawling is not something I could do easily. Jason got behind me to make sure I wasn't flashing everyone. While going through the tunnel, Jason says "Do you feel like Alice now?" haha!
We walk in and immediately see a creepy coffin and men in terrifying make-up. Jace says "I don't want to do this." Ashely and mom held his hands and kept saying "It's okay. We should have picked level one. We'll be out soon." Jace sadly kept repeating that he didn't want to be there. Luckily everyone in the haunted house was great, heard that he was scared in a bad way, and backed off. We passe done creepy guy who I immediately hated... Jason waved at him. He waved back. We left all in one piece and walked over to Jordyn and Chris. Jace immediately said "I never want to do that again." I agree, Jace. Looks like I can only handle a kid haunted house as well. Sad, I know.
After the haunted house, we did s'mores by a bon fire. Below are pictures:
A ghost Jason found:
After the bon fire, Jason and I waited to do a canoe ride. I was slightly nervous about climbing in and out of a boat in my outfit. It worked out though. I took off my high heals and climbed in with Jason's help. We got the best canoe guide of them all. He had a skull on the back of the canoe and is apparently on the board of directors of Cochran Mill. He told us about the nature center, the walking trails, and the waterfall. We didn't realize they had so much stuff. He told us of one particularly nice spot where people go to walk or... do other things "If you're in to that sort of thing." haha! Very funny guy. It was a beautiful ride... there were candles in the lake and we had the one canoe that had a lantern on the back. Just beautiful! On the way back, the guy told Jason to get out to "help Alice." haha! Very fun! Below is a picture:
We then went to see everyone in the center where they were drawing pictures:
After this, we decided to head out. This is Jace and mom waiting on the hay ride back:
October 30, 2015
The day before Halloween. We got invited by some old friends (Amanda and Wes) to go to a Harry Potter Sorcerers Ball. Jason and I immediately went out and got costumes. Luckily we're nerds and already had a witches hat and a velvet robe. Not much left to get. We went to the Halloween store and purchased one more robe, a cute owl, and a hat. Jason was amazing and sowed the owl to my hat for me. It was awesome. Below are pictures of us:
We ate dinner with everyone and then made our way to the bar next door. They served butterbeer, which tasted exactly like a pancake with syrup. We were then sorted into houses. We walked up to a guy with a large hat and pulled out a glow stick. Whatever color the glow stick was indicated which house you were sorted into. Jason and I were sorted into Ravenclaw together! So excited! We then played games in order to win points for our house. Jason and I played a game of cornhole... I know, horrible name for a game! We played with a couple from Gryffindor. They were really really nice and they slaughtered us. We won horrible but it was so much fun! Jason also signed up for Beer Pong, but it was so late that we had to leave before his name was called. Never learned which team won. Waking up at 4:45 meant that by 1 a.m. we were officially exhausted. We thanked everyone for such a fun night and headed out. Yay for Halloween and Ravencalw!
October 31, 2015
Jason and I began the day eating Einstein Bagels. We also grabbed two bags of candy to give to Jace and Jordyn. Ashely texted us a cute picture of Jace dressed as a ghost. Turns out they were doing trick or treating at Ashely Park. Since it was right next to the bagel place, we decided to walk over and give them candy. I grabbed the vikings hat Jason got me for Christmas to wear for the occasion. Below is a picture:
We finally ran into Jace, Ash, and Chris. Jordyn was at his dad's so we couldn't see him. When Jace saw me, he didn't know who I was. The beard threw him off. We gave him candy, he thanked us, and walked off toward the next store giving out candy. haha! Great kid. Below is a picture:
After visiting a while, we then headed back to bagels. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching Halloween cartoons from the 90s. Also some creepy old movies. We spend Halloween night giving out candy to roughly. . . 7 groups of kids. It was a slow night for some reason. We had fun though. We made dip with chips and drank surge. Nothing better than the most popular drink of the 90s while watching the most popular 90s cartoon Halloween episodes. Perfect evening. Below is a picture:
No comments:
Post a Comment