I shudder to think of the day when these kids of mine are too big to enjoy Halloween’s revelries. Then again, I’m practically ancient and whenever October rolls around, I’m like a kid again.
With gorgeous weather and many adventures, we had an absolute blast this October.
We had a “ball” at Heritage Square’s “Bootown.”
The zipline was fun but the kids deemed their new Rocky Mountain Ropes Course not-so fun.
American Ninja Warrior contenders they are not.
We spent an entire day at Elitch Gardens’ Fright Fest and took both kids to the scary haunted houses for the first time.
Fun fact from their marketing department: At least one creepy zombie “actor” gets punched every day from freaked-out patrons.
My good friend Jennie and her husband have been staying with us as they finalize their move to Colorado. Not only did they help us with the Giant Gourd of Horror as Jamie scared trick-or-treaters all night, Jennie did a bang-up job on Bode’s skeleton make-up. He was delighted no one recognized him!
Hadley went as the White Lady from The Hobbit and the kids had a blast hanging out with friends.
My favorite moment of the night (apart from The Pumpkin Man traumatizing the neighbors) was during the parade. Our neighborhood fire station generously hosts a party with loads of treas and a fire-truck-led parade. Last year, Bode raced off with his friends but found himself alone at the end of it.
The kid has serious abandonment issues so you can imagine how well that turned out despite the fact he easily found his way home.
This year, I cautioned him to stay close to us but despite our best attempts, we couldn’t track down any of his buddies.
Enter: Witch Ashlee. I suspect she has had a crush on Bode since kindergarten because she positively melts when he’s around. She glommed onto him during the parade and would not let him leave her side. 
I could tell he was dying inside to be walking next to a girl during the parade but being the nice guy that he is, he didn’t ditch her. I knew the moment that parade was over, he’d be outta there like a skeleton out of the closet.
As we were parting, Ashlee took a bold approach. Instead of going to Bode (which would have resulted in a blatant rejection), she very sweetly asked ME if he wanted to go trick-or-treating with her.
I gently turned her down by saying he’d rather die a slow, painful death he was already going with his friends.
But you’d better believe when he’s 16, I won’t be so nice.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 