Although our Halloween party is practically an all-consuming affair, Jason and I love fall and Halloween too much to miss out on all the other seasonal activities just because we’ve got that whole party mess to work out.

Early in October we took our friend Arvinder, who is visiting the U.S. from India for the first time, to Nightmare on 13^th in Salt Lake City, which is one of the top haunted houses in the country. We thought this might be a little too much cultural immersion for him but he loved his good American scare. Before he would go into each new area at the haunted house he’d guess where all the creeps would be hiding and anticipate their surprise; he’d jump and then laugh whenever something startled him and he made sure he told all the actors that they were awesome.

We also went to Cornbelly’s a few weeks ago with a group of our friends. Agriculture may seem anything but entertaining, however, if that is the case, then Cornbelly’s is at odds with the natural state of the universe. Corn mazes, haunted hayrides, rubber ducky races, straw mazes, crazy slides, corn cannons, tetherball, and pig races are just a few of the endless activities that will divert you at Cornbelly’s. We quite enjoyed running, climbing, sliding, and crawling around like kids. We raced our duckies, climbed on rope webs, mulled over straw mazes, and held fierce sliding competitions. We had a blast but I am sad to report that we failed to successfully navigate a corn maze; after wandering around in one for almost 2 hours we found ourselves back at the entrance, not the exit, so, with that demoralizing blow, we gave up.

After our party was over, and time didn’t seem so compressed, we had a chance to attend a couple gatherings that we didn’t have to do any of the prep work for. Hallelujah! In addition to dropping by an adults-only bash hosted by Jason’s brother we went to a pirate themed shindig with the Rowleys, which was also just for grownups. The buccaneer party was put on by Jeremy’s boss, who happens to be the owner of the company he works for. It was definitely an atypical affair. Apparently the host spent over $60,000 on the custom animatronics he had build solely for this get-together. However, his many obsessed employees, who were the source of this information, were definitely prone to extreme exaggeration and out-right bragging when it came to their esteemed chief so I would be surprised if that cost estimate wasn’t on the high side but, either way, it was obvious that quite a bit of mullah had been shelled out to make this event happen. We loved the swashbuckling atmosphere, the yummy grog and grub, and dancing the Macarena. More than anything though we enjoyed being guests at this gathering instead of hosts.

On the 30^th we decided to participate in a 5k fundraiser for Hale Center Theater called the Highway to Hale. The main appeal of this particular race was that costumes were encouraged; Jason and I were all about that. We didn’t want to wear anything too annoying though while we were racing so I simply donned angel wings and a halo while Jason sported a clown wig and some rather bright spider web socks. A lot of the other runners put Halloween spirit over comfort and raced in all sorts of completely awkward gear: a cow suit, a giant Wheaties box, a frigid looking grass skirt and coconut shells combo (on a guy).  We saw a group dressed as Mario Kart characters with cardboard boxes strapped around their necks serving as the karts. They looked great and were surprisingly graceful running with their bulky boxes…yeah, they passed me. Sad. Although I was outrun by the cardboard box people I still placed 17^th out of the over 60 women in my age division. Jason, of course, put me to shame though. He finished 6^th in his age group and, out of hundreds of race participants, he finished 23^rd overall. What can I say? I’ve created a monster.

I decided that since we had over a week between our party and Halloween, enough time to sort of recuperate, that on Halloween I wanted to make a spooky dead man’s dinner for Jason. Jason was eager to help create this delicious yet disgusting feast so together we made shrunken head cider, bone calzones, trick-or-treat turnovers, and toe jam sundaes. Sounds scrumptious doesn’t it? It was actually quite tasty and a lot of fun to make. Preparing an unappetizing meal might just be a new Halloween tradition for us.