lesson learned

I've been excited for Halloween for weeks. No, not because I had some amazing costume and no, not because I was planning some amazing spooky party. I was excited because I planned to go to Hawaii for the holiday.  Anyone from there knows that Laie celebrates Halloween like no other town.  The whole community is out walking around, there is home-made haunted houses on every street and the weather is totally perfect to enjoy the fun atmosphere and bump into all your friends.  I was so looking forward to it.  UNFORTUNATELY, I didn't make it.  To pour salt on the wound, it turns out I COULD have made it if I had just jumped on the flight I was planning on taking.  But I got greedy - there were so many big things happening this weekend I skipped the wide open Friday flight because I figured I would go to everything and then just fly out on Sunday.  Of course, when Sunday rolled around the numbers looked horrible and I was left to moan and groan and regret my decision to skip the Friday flight.  Thus, the lesson all non-revenue flyers learn - TAKE THE OPEN FLIGHT WHEN IT'S THERE! Yup, for me it's a lesson LEARNED!

So, the kids and I spent Halloween in Utah. And we had a fun weekend.  Here are some pics of what we did (. . . yes, this is my feeble attempt to make me feel better about missing my hawaiian-style Halloween sniff, sniff haha).

First things first - the COSTUMES! The girls stayed dressed up practically all weekend.  Kina changed her costume many times (all her outfits were of course, chosen from the dress-up box), but my tomboy Malia was extremely confident and non-wavering at what she wanted to be - a kung-fu fighter.

On Friday, Wayne's mom and sisters threw an awesome Halloween party for the girls.  There was cookie decorating, games and awesome favors.  The girls loved it!  I also got to watch the BYU-TCU game at David and Shan's with my siblings.  BYU lost (Aargh!), but Michael made a touchdown (Yay!) and it was still fun to kick it with the fam.

The girls and I decorated Halloween cookies for neighbors and friends. 

On Saturday, we attended Tia's (Wayne's cousin) wedding.  It was GORGEOUS.  The decorations were amazing and it was nice celebrate with all the family. (Thank you Liz for the pic!)

The girls and I made Tongan pies (Vai's recipe) for my dad who came into town.  It's my first time making them on my own, but I think they turned out great.

On Monday (after I dropped off Malia at her school's Halloween party), I witnessed my brother being sworn in to the Utah State Bar at the Abravenel Hall in Salt Lake City.  It was totally awesome. I'm so proud of him.  After the ceremony, we all went to the Lion House to eat.  It was yummy food and so special to celebrate Joseph's achievement.

To celebrate Halloween, Kika and I took the girls to the University Mall to Trick-or-treat.  The girls loved it even though they were all really tired at the end.  On our way home, they fell asleep in the car but STILL wanted to go trick-or-treating when we got home.  We went around the block and they had a blast.  We have an awesome neighborhood - everyone dressed up and everyone passed out candy. The girls loved ringing the doorbells and seeing everyone on the road.  Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood was definitely the highlight of Halloween.

We had a busy and fun Halloween weekend.  There were actually so many things happening, we had to opt out on a few just so we would all stay sane and happy.  Of course, I'm still a little bummed we never made it to Hawaii. . . but I look at it as a lesson learned!  And I'm definitely planning to be Hawaii bound next year!

Latu Family Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween errrybody!


**Something I want to remember - While we were trick-or-treating around our neighborhood the girls were getting a kick out of ringing the doorbells and seeing the people answering the doors.  I would kinda wait in the driveway or road with Tali in the stroller.  Most of the ward members would say, "Hi Latu girls" and then call out to me, "Hi Mary!" After one door, Malia turns around to me and asks, "Mom, how come everyone knows your name?"