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Rich was in charge of decorating the outside of our house this Halloween. We had a small graveyard, and on the porch a coffin was laid out with the lid opening slightly by a skeletal hand. Rich was able to light the inside the coffin with a blue light and even had a fog machine blowing smoke out the opening. He had the fog machine remote controlled from inside the house. So, when a trick or treater came to the door, he would hit the button on the fog machine and listen while the children oohed and aahed. It was hilarious!

We get a lot of trick or treaters every year. My analytical side really comes out on Halloween. I love to keep track of how many trick or treaters visit from year to year, and I even keep a graph to see when the peak times are. This year we had 364 trick or treaters in our neighborhood. Amazing!

Halloween is a big deal in my family. Every year my sister and I get together and plan a big party. We have a different theme every year and we try to come with fun and unique games and activities to go with the party. We've done everything from Halloween Survivor to a Choose Your Own Adventure Party. We have a great time doing it and look forward to it every year. This year's party had a pirate theme. Everyone came in their best pirate garb. They were tested on their knowledge of pirate lingo, had to go on a treasure hunt, and we even played our own version of Liar's Dice.

Rich and I decided to have some spooky fun this Halloween season by going on Salt Lake City's Ghost Tours. It's a bus tour that travels around different locations in Salt Lake that are haunted. There's a storyteller on every tour that tells the story of each location. This picture was taken at the Salt Lake Cemetery where we heard the story of the ghost of Emo.

Every year Rich and I attend the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. Storytellers from all over the world come to Orem, UT to tell stories. It's really an amazing experience. In this picture I'm waiting for Laughin' Night to start. All of the tellers tell their funniest stories and we have a BLAST! I always bring some type of craft to work on while waiting. Some years I crochet afghans, but this year I'm working on a cross-stitch project.

So Janel and I went to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City. As you can see, there were some great opportunities for photos (I just need a Buck Rogers costume, and a few people on the ground looking up at me in awe, and I'll be ready to make my own movie). One other fun thing we did was watch the laser show - we went into a dark room, listened to U2 at 140 decibels, and watched pictures move around a 360 degree room. Really cool.

I bought a new bike today! I'm very excited to use it to go tooling around to shops and around the neighborhood. I love the new designs of the bikes...retro, but functional. There was one small hiccup in buying the bike. When I was test-driving the bike in the store's parking lot, I ran into a planter and scraped up my arm. How embarrassing! We still bought the bike, but I just hope people driving by didn't see me fall. Anyway, I love the bike, and I've added a basket for my purse/shopping bags. So, scraped up arm aside, I'm happy.

Once a year, our group of friends get together and go camping. This year was extra fun because we went up a day early. There were about 30 of us in all (including 17 kids!). Rich and I were the first ones at the campsite so we were able to relax after we'd put up the tent and unpacked our things. In the evenings, the kids LOVED listening to my sister tell stories. (She's a professional storyteller.) We also sang songs around the campfire and roasted marshmallows. After putting the kids to bed, we played card games by lantern-light. What a great weekend!

Our neighborhood hosted a men's overnight camp-out this weekend. Rich had a great time visiting with people and sitting by the fire. Of course, his favorite part was roasting the marshmallows!

Janel's sister hosted this year's annual Fourth of July picnic. Our friends come to enjoy good food, good fun, and of course, the fireworks! We each bring fireworks to light off when it gets dark. This year we had a lot of fun playing Rock Band. Here's Janel playing the drums, although everyone switched around on the instruments.

Rich and I performed in a dance at our friend's Renaissance-themed wedding! We practiced for weeks to get the steps right. Rich loved to make faces at me while we were dancing so that I would start laughing. Finally, I had to not look at him so I wouldn't crack up in the middle of the dance.