RM Halloween is back!

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you might remember that for 9 years my college hosted a community trick-or-treat event, which got bigger and bigger each Halloween. It started with about 500 guests, and by 2018 and 2019, we were seeing crowds of 2500 visiting our campus each October 31. For obvious reasons, we didn't hold the event in 2020. In 2021 we did an outdoor movie night, and in 2022 we held a fall carnival event just for students on campus. There were a lot of people asking in 2022 if we were doing Halloween again, but I just didn't think our campus was ready for it. This event relies on a ton of volunteers and candy donations, and the numbers just weren't there. I didn't want to hold the event if I didn't think we could have the support we needed. 

Well, I couldn't hold it off any longer, and the RM Halloween Extravaganza was back this year. Despite my typical worries about not having enough candy donations, it as a huge hit once again! We didn't have 2019 crowds, but that's ok. The crowd we had was much more manageable and everything went smoothly. We counted approximately 1500 guests in attendance, although it's not completely accurate because we only count people coming in from one part of campus, missing a few other parking lots. I was amazed that after 4 years, our community still showed up--both our campus community and our neighbors. 

As always, it was quite a bit of work, but we have really learned to simplify. The only decorations we put up are our inflatables, and we leave the rest up to each individual booth. We also nixed the popcorn and cotton candy this year because those require heavy volunteer help and are quite the hassle. Instead, we invited a couple of food trucks (one that served kettle corn), and that seemed to be enough. 

Cara has been helping with Halloween for at least 7 out of the 10 years, and I always appreciate her help and her energy. She does her best to try to get me in the Halloween spirit, and I like that she just knows what to do. No one on my team has seen a RM Halloween before, so it was great to have Cara helping lead the way. The only decoration we did this year was to add this giant fake spider web (made out of beef cloth), and I think it turned out so cool! 

There's a running joke among anyone who has been around me during Halloween season, that I *always* worry about not having enough candy. I worried even more this year, and once again, it was for nothing. We had SO MUCH CANDY once again. I even used some college money that I had been approved to spend on candy, and I really should have waited until the day before the event to assess whether or not we needed it. I promise I'll try not to freak out next year. But hey, the good news is we have plenty of candy left over for other events this year--which is good because we have had major budget cuts. 

The very first booth that was reserved this year called dibs on the Barbie theme, and they did a fantastic job with it! It was definitely one of the favorites! One of the greatest parts of this event is seeing the creativity of the students and departments that host booths. This year was no exception. I had one faculty member reserve a whole section of campus and he had about 7 different booths and activities including a monster truck, basketball shooting, a haunted desert trail, trunk or treat and several others. He also got donations from the person who hosts a big Halloween event in Scottsdale, so we have things to use next year. 

One of our club presidents has a photo booth (his family business) and let us use it for free. It was fantastic! I'd definitely get that again. I've done photo booths in the past, but this one was way better...and also free. You could do still images, gifs, and other options. 

Cara has done a princess costume several years, and she is always very popular with the little girls. Here she is appreciating the work of her club members from the Adventure Association. They had a little camp site set up, and they also made smores for the kids over a little electric flame. 

The crowd was still very large this year, but like I said, it was manageable. It never felt like you couldn't walk down the sidewalk as it has previous years, just a steady flow of traffic. I think we also did a better job of spacing out the different booths, and placed them more appropriately in the well lit parts of campus. We only had to rent one light, as it seems our lights are better than they were previous years. 

There was quite the line for people waiting for free smores!

Puvana and her partner came as Princess Tiana and the frog. He was not terribly amused, especially when she asked him to kneel down and squat like a frog. I think I heard him say "don't ask me to do that again." Cara, Puvana and I were all Disney princesses, but we don't have a picture of just the 3 of us together. Bummer!

There was a lot of this for Cara tonight, and a little bit for me as well. When the 3 of us stood together, we had a few families who wanted to take pictures of their kids with us. 

Snow White and Cinderella this year, 80's workout girls last time--it's fun to do matching costumes with friends! It's about the only way anyone can get me to decide on a new Halloween costume each year, otherwise I might just resort to rotating the same 3 costumes. 

I'm happy that everything went smoothly--great crowd, plenty of candy, creative booths, fun times with great friends. As reluctant as I was to hold this event again, I'm glad it's back. It's an important event for our campus, and the single biggest community event MCC does each year. Before we know it, it'll be time to start planning for 2024! Thanks to all who helped make it happen. I'm grateful for my Thunderbird team!

The State Fair

This was a first for us! We took the kids to the State Fair for the first time ever tonight. When I was a kid, I went to the State Fair many times, especially when I was a teenager. It was a big deal to make the trip to Minot for the fair and to take in a few concerts with friends. After all, there's not a lot going on in ND, so both the county fair in Williston and the State Fair in Minot were something you looked forward to each summer. The State Fair here doesn't quite have the same appeal, although it's a lot of the same stuff--rides, food, farm animals, games, concerts. I was craving a corn dog, and Ava shared her hot Cheeto and cheese covered french fries with everyone. We didn't go on any rides, but we did walk through the farm animal tent so these city kids could see (and smell) the farm. I found a llama who didn't seem too excited about being in my selfie. 

There is one thing that the AZ State Fair has that we never had in ND. Flying trapeze, and MY FRIEND performing in the act! I may have written about the Flying Royals in previous posts, but Ali is currently performing multiple shows a day with this troupe at the fair. She was also on a contract with them in San Diego back in June, so she has been living her circus dreams! I went to see her perform here a couple weeks ago as well (and had a great time), and thought it would be a fun thing to bring the family to see. 

Of course the person with the braces wanted a caramel apple! I don't think it caused any damage, but don't tell her orthodontist. 

As I'm sure I mentioned when I wrote about this show before, they are on a criss crossing rig, meaning the flyers can come from 3 different directions. In this video, you'll see one flyer doing a layout bar to bar (not to a catcher), and at the same time, Ali does a double tuck tot he catcher. It's so cool! I'm very proud of her for following her dreams, and I'm happy that I was able to watch her perform a few times during the fair. 

Just a brag about Ali here, she is not only a very talented trapeze artist, but she's also a psychologist and is crazy smart. She works so hard, and juggles a very complicated schedule--trying to work her full time job, see her contract patients, train and perform. Not to mention that she always finds time to be a great friend to me, and a supportive trapeze teammate to all of us. I'm so glad that she found her way to our rig when she moved to Phoenix a couple years ago. 

It may have taken us 17 years of being parents to get our kids to the State Fair, but we can now check that off the list. Unless I have a reason to go watch trapeze again, I can't say this will be a regular outing for us, but it was fun for something new to do as a family.

We aren't usually in Williston when the county fair rolls through town, but there was one year that we were able to catch it. Take a look at that blog post from 2014 just for fun.

High school stuff

Tyler and Ava are two very different people, and if the first few months of the school year are any indication, they are going to have two very different high school experiences. Aside from the things that are different because of the time we live in (technology, social media, etc), Ava's experience is looking a lot like mine did. Hanging out with and talking to my friends was the most important, talking about boys, going to sporting events, sleeping in on weekends, going to dances, doing well in school but having it not be the priority...you get the idea. Ava is lucky to have a few good friends from the Academy that are still her best friends in high school. Lexi plays on the flag football team, which is a new sport for RMHS (and MPS. She went to watch Lexi's game tonight, and her other good friend, Jordan was cheering. Jordan's mom snapped this cute picture of the three girls. I hope high school is all the great things for Ava, filled with fun times and good friends. It's off to a good start! 

I had to include this photo--it was such a teenager thing to do. I think I took this after I picked Ava up from the game. I'm sure she'd be annoyed that I included it, but I wanted to remember this time in our lives...which seems to be a whole lot of driving Ava around! Love you Ava!  

Freshman HoCo

Tonight was the big Homecoming dance for RMHS. Ava got ready over at Lexi's house, and then I went over there to take them to get photos and then to dinner before the dance-at least, that was the plan. It didn't quite go as scheduled, but I think it worked out. They looked great! 

So, the plan was that the boys were supposed to get there around 4:30 and then we'd go to take their photos somewhere in downtown Gilbert.  it was close to 6 by the time everyone was there and ready, we had to change plans a bit. I had to take a few behind the scenes photos of the girls getting ready. Brings back memories! 

Here was Ava, patiently waiting for her date to show up. Oh, and when he finally arrived, he was wearing white Crocs....hahaha! He did have a pair or dress shoes with him at least. Doesn't Ava look beautiful?!

Well, Lexi's date showed up about 30 minutes late (wearing the wrong shoes, so his dad had to go get different ones for him) and Ava's date was over an hour late! In their defense, I don't know that the girls did a great job of communicating this plan to the boys, as I'm finding that 'planning' isn't their strong suit. Since the sun was setting, we didn't really have time to go anywhere for photos, but luckily the houses in Lexi's neighborhood made for a good photo backdrop. We took these in front of her next door neighbor's house (and she came out at one point and said she was a photographer...should have had her take the photos!). 

Lexi's date was named Jake, and he and Lloyd are friends. They look good! We forgot to get the boys boutonnieres, but they did remember to get the girls corsages. The girls won't be wearing these shoes for long--they'll change into their sneakers for the actual dance. 

Ave humored me by letting me get in a photo with her. 

I love this photo of her and Lexi! They are such great friends, and I'm so glad that they get to do things like this together. I told Ava she'd have more fun if she just went to the dance with a group of girlfriends, and since she didn't listen, at least she's with Lexi. I hope these two can keep this friendship going for a long time. Some of my best friends are the girls I met in junior high, so hopefully that's the same for them. 

The boys seemed to feel pretty awkward for these photos, no one really knowing how to stand or what to do. I'm not very good at posing people either, so I couldn't help much. 

One last photo with this sunset before we head to the dance. They didn't have time to stop anywhere for dinner though, but at least we managed to get photos. 

I hope Ava has good memories from her first high school formal, and that they all enjoyed the night. I ended up waiting up for her to need a ride home, and when she finally said she was ready to be picked up I headed her direction. When I was 1/4 mile away from where she said she'd be, I got a text that said "nevermind, Cindy (Lexi's grandma) is going to pick us up." So, you can imagine how happy I was about that! Ha! Like I said, planning isn't really their strong suit these days. Happy HoCo!

Playoff baseball

The Diamondbacks made it into the playoffs this year (and since I'm writing this several months later, I can say that they also made it into the World Series), and Dave was able to go to one of the games with Tim and some friends. There were some really exciting games during this series, including a thrilling walk-off win in the game last night.  Dave was able to watch them win in the game he went to as well, so it was a fun experience for him. He's never been able to go to a playoff game, so this was a fun time. It's pretty cool to see our hometown team winning! Dave's always been a D-Backs fan, so it was cool that he was able to go. Here area a few photos he sent me to share here.

Here they are with Dave's good friend Jason and his wife Rachel. What a great photo! 

They played Philadelphia, which is has a great team, so I don't think anyone was expecting the D-Backs to win this series--which made it that much more exciting. And, they beat the Dodgers to get to this round! That's always a good thing for us D-Backs fans. Tim has always been a Dodger fan, so he probably wasn't too excited to see the D-Backs win, but he was a good sport and went to support his second favorite team with Dave. 

Let's go D-Backs!

Ava's going to HoCo

Ava got asked to go to her first Homecoming, or "HoCo" as the kids call it today. When I was in high school, it was a lot easier to ask someone to a dance. You just asked them! Now the kids have to come up with some creative way to ask their date, with a sign of some sort and something else creative. This kid, Lloyd had a sign that looked like a song on Spotify that said "we r bound to go to HoCo together," which was a play on the name of a song...I think. They definitely don't plan too far ahead. I think he asked her on Wednesday and the dance on Saturday. Luckily she already had a dress picked out. He's a friend of the boy that asked Lexi, so the four of them will go together. Stay tuned for photos of the kids dressed up later this weekend. 

It's a good time to share a funny story from my homecoming experience my freshman year in high school. I had a crush on this boy named Chris, who was a junior. I was on swim team with his sisters, but had never really talked to him. I called him up on the phone (I must have been so nervous...I wonder how many times I called and hung up before I got up my nerve), totally out of the blue and asked him if he'd go to Homecoming with me. Surprisingly, he said yes! I found out later that the next day at school, he had to have his friends point out who this "Erica Berger" person was! He said yes not even knowing who I was! Crazy.....he must not have regretted it because we had a good time at the dance and we went out for about 6 months or so. We went to Winter Formal together that year too. I told Ava that story and she couldn't believe I did that--I can't really either!

Vegas with the kids: part 2

Before this trip, I was looking for options of things the kids and I could do. Of course I thought about going to a Cirque show, but then I saw the option of going to see the Sphere and the kids both thought that sounds like fun. The only ways to see the inside of the Sphere right now are to pay a bunch of money to go to a U2 concert, or to go to the Postcard from Earth experience, which is what we did. The show was at 2 pm, and since we got there way earlier than we needed to, we spent some time walking around inside the Venetian. I showed the kids some of my favorite spots in there, including this shopping area that looks like you're outside on the streets of Venice. I've been here a few different times now, and have actually visited this exact same spot three times in 2023. 

This is what it's like taking a picture with two teenagers. One makes a goofy face, then the other one does. 

But after a little "come one, can we get one nice picture" from me, they took this one. 

After we wandered around for a half hour or so, we headed back to the Sphere. We had to wait in line for a little while before the doors opened, which was about an hour before the actual show started. 

I love this picture that Tyler took of me and Ava. She's so pretty!

So, it might be a little tough to describe all the things we saw in here. The lobby area was part of the experience, along with the actual show inside. There were AI robots that you could interact with, some who talked about various aspects of the technology inside the Sphere. 

I'll share a few videos, but it won't even come close to giving an accurate idea of what it was like in there. The film we watched told an interesting story along with all the cool cinematography. Basically, it's a story told from the perspective of astronauts who were sending two people to another planet because we had destroyed our own. Super uplifting right? The idea was that these two astronauts were in some kind of hyper-sleep in a space capsule as they were traveling for many years to get to another planet. A voice was talking to these astronauts as they were starting to wake up, reminding them of where they had come from and why they were going somewhere else. As this story is being told, we are seeing scenes of all the beauty on our planet--the landscapes, animals, plants, cultures, traditions all around the world. Basically the story was "our planet was so beautiful and had all of these amazing things, but we didn't take care of it and now we have to go find somewhere else to live." While a dark and depressing story, it was pretty amazing to see the beauty on the screen. To watch some videos, click here, here (which looks like a church we saw in Italy), and here. Not only are you seeing and hearing the movie, but you're also feeling it. It's a totally immersive experience. Afterwards, Tyler did point out the irony that the message of the movie was that we the technology we use is killing our planet, all while we sit in a building that probably used a ton of resources to create. It was a very cool facility, and would be fun to see a concert in there some day. 

After the show was over, we went back to the Venetian to eat at a burger place that Dave and I went to a year ago when we were here. We both thought it was one the best burgers we'd ever had. All three of us ordered the same burger that Dave and I had, and it was just as good as last time. The server had asked us at one point if we wanted to get a shake for dessert, but we all said we were too full. About 20 minutes later, he came out with this gigantic Oreo shake and said that "the kitchen made this one on accident" so you can have it for free. We were all pretty excited, and miraculously found room for dessert even after eating our entire meal. 

Take a look at this meal! The shake had a giant ice cream sandwich propped on top. It was quite impressive!

Definitely a photo worthy dessert--although Ava had to hold Tyler's hands down so she could take her picture. This was a great way to end our fun last day in Vegas. 

We couldn't see much of the Sphere from the outside, but I did snap this shot from our car before we hit the road. We had a smooth drive back home after a fun Vegas weekend. I'm sure Dave would have liked to be there with us, but he had a good weekend of softball. It was nice for me to have this time with the kids, and I'm glad I was able to have the weekend with them. It's really cool to see Tyler taking advantage of these opportunities to network in his community and to get experience. We're so proud of him for being willing to put himself out there, go meet new people even when he doesn't know a single person there. I don't know if I would have done that at 17! Ava was kind of just along for the ride, but I think she had fun too--even just to get away for the weekend and see a new place. Vegas definitely isn't my favorite (crazy that I was there 4 times in 2023 (3 for trapeze, and this one with the kids), but it's a good place to go for trapeze!