Our Scary, Wonderful Halloween Trip to Utah

The whole family ventured out to Utah for Doug's ordination and Halloween last week.  The weather was chilly but nice and we loved the chance to visit some of our family out there.  Our kids had the Friday before Halloween off school, so we flew out on Thursday evening and headed back on the red-eye flight Sunday night.   

Our trip went smoothly until we landed in SLC around 1:30 am Eastern time.  When we fly, Troy stays on the plane to clean after we land and I take the kids off by myself.  After I got the kids settled, Katie wandered away from the other kids and when I came back from the bathroom we couldn't find her anywhere.  I was panicking!  After Troy got off the plane, I took the rest of the kids past security to the baggage claim to see if she had gone down there.  Since we couldn't find her anywhere, Troy contacted security and they helped us look.  No one could find a trace of her.  After about 30 minutes, they went through the security camera footage and were able to track her as she walked away from her siblings and went into the middle of a crowded gate and curled up under her dad's leather jacket to sleep.  She was so tired that she wasn't thinking very clearly.  I'm so thankful for the technology that made finding her easier.  Once we got our missing Katie, we picked up a minivan and headed to our Lindon house.  It was snowing earlier in the week and I'm so glad it all melted before we got there.

On Friday, we got to meet Gretchen and the kids loved playing with her and taking her for a walk.  Janell's Carillon bread twists and corn chowder were delicious - of course!  I want to try making the bread twists myself.  I couldn't eat just one...  Now I'm craving them.

CARILLON BELL TOWER BREADSTICKS

24 frozen dinner rolls, thawed but still cold (Janell used her bread recipe with lecithin)

24 wooden chopsticks

1/2 cup melted butter

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dill weed

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Roll out each roll about 6 inches long and then wrap around the chopsticks, leaving 2 inches at the bottom for a hand hold. Place on a greased baking sheet. Cover with a light cloth and let rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake twists for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. While they are baking, combine the butter and spices. Remove breadsticks from oven and brush with the butter mixture. Serve breadsticks warm. For a fun presentation, stand the breadsticks upright in a vase. Makes 24 breadsticks. — "Brigham Young University Cougars Cookbook"

The leaves were just turning colors and most hadn't fallen yet.  That meant our yard work at the duplex was much less time consuming than I had anticipated.  It was nice to have more free time to enjoy our favorite places in the area.  

We fit in a stop at the Nightmare Express, The Sweet Tooth Fairy, California Pizza Kitchen (free kids birthday meals), Tucanos (free birthday meal for Katie), and IHOP for their free scary face pancakes Friday morning.  The kids had a blast decorating their pancakes with mini Oreos and candy corn.

Yummy Fudge Sundaes at CPK

I love that Utah celebrates Halloween on Saturday when the actual holiday falls on the sabbath.  Unfortunately the forecast said it would rain that evening.  We enjoyed a yummy dinner with Scott's family and our kids enjoyed trick or treating with their cousins (and they shared their Almond Joys with me!).  The rain stopped around 7 pm so they didn't get soaked :)  Thanks to Jolynne for taking them around with her kids.

Sunday included church, Doug's ordination, cards, more yummy meals, and visiting with family.  I was glad that the kids were able to witness Troy ordaining Doug to become an elder.  We are so proud of Doug for the choices he is making and are looking forward to hearing where he will be called to serve soon.