Halloween 2024

 

It was a cold Thursday Halloween night in 2024. Grayson brought up a memory of several years ago, when it was still quite warm and he set up the projector with "The Great Pumpkin" playing as he handed out candy. That was before he got "scrooge-y" (so he says, although that's a Christmas, not a Halloween reference). 

I'd bought some candy and had it prepped and ready ... and Coop and I snuck some of our favorites in the days preceding the holiday. We didn't get our first visitor until fairly late, after 7:00, but then we got quite a few groups. I was on door duty this year. 

My Zumba class had a couple of seasonal songs; Skeleton Sam, and of course, Thriller.  I remember the Terra Linda 6th graders performing it, so I have video of both Cooper and Colton doing the dance back in the day. Similar steps in each, based on the original music video.  99% of the time I'm just in my traditional gray/black at Zumba, but I sported an orange Halloween t-shirt this year.  I snagged the picture of a cute little red riding hood and a scary wolf from K8's Instagram.  Landon and others at LKL dressed up at work (more Landon pictures below).  Gray had his usual "Pal"oween with his work buddies (the Friday before). He's Deadpool. I didn't get a Halloween post up for a few years, but in 2022 ... he was the danger (from Breaking Bad). 

I wasn't super familiar with Landon's character costume, but he sure looked cute!

Loved the freckles!

Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable ... Disney series.

Landon said they made some of the traditional sugar cookies shaped like pumpkins and decorated with candy corn. We didn't get around to making them at the West Jordan Blackham abode.  Fingers crossed there will turkey cookies come Thanksgiving though! 

Gray and the Subway

Grayson has had a lot of activities this summer ... hiking, running, biking. Almost all with buddies from work. One buddy had a buddy who had pulled a permit for The Subway in Zions for a group of twelve. So Gray joined. It didn't fit into the schedule that well, Monday, October 7, but you have to take what you can get. Per the info about it ...

The Subway is a classic semi-technical slot canyon hike in Zion National Park. To complete the hike you wade/swim/scramble/climb down the Left Fork of North Creek. The stream is the trail for most of the route. Some of the holes are deep enough that you do have to swim, and the water is cold.

• Trail Head: 37.339954, -113.075776
• Trail Type: Canyoneering
• Length: 9.5 miles, 7 to 9 hours
• Difficulty: Technical

The hike is somewhat like the famous Narrows, only more intense. You climb down waterfalls and scramble over boulders. Serious rappelling is not necessary but ropes come in handy to help get people over cliffs and to lower packs.

Most canyoneers do this canyon from top down - it is very difficult to do it bottom up. A shuttle is required. You must have a permit to hike this canyon; permits can be obtained at any Visitor Center. Get detailed trail information before doing this hike. Only attempt this canyon if you are hiking with an experienced canyoneer.

During the first part of the hike you stay on top of ridges and cross shallow washes, until you reach the of Left Fork Canyon and Russell Creek. That's where you scramble down the steep hillside into the slot. Once in the slot you just hike downstream, finding ways over or around obstacles. The semi-technical part of the route ends at the bottom of the Subway (at a spectacular small waterfall where canyon walls arch overhead and almost close to create a tunnel-effect - a subway). From there you continue hiking downstream past a large boulder covered with dinosaur tracks. Exit the canyon where you see a sign marking the trail up the ridge to the Left Fork Trailhead. It is a steep, hot climb out of the canyon.

In addition to some climbing gear, everyone needed a wetsuit for the water portions. Between Gray's camera, and a couple others, there were a lot of pictures to capture the experience.

Landon ~ Big Fish

Landon works for L.K.L. Associates in the roofing department. One of the shingle manufacturers had a trip planned for for several guys from L.K.L as well as some of their customers. They were off to Louisiana for some fishing! A four day trip, he headed out Monday, October 21 and returned Thursday October 24, two days traveling, two days on the water. Landon checked in with a write-up and some pictures ...

Day one ended up being a long day. We landed in New Orleans and had to wait roughly an hour for a car rental. After that, we were all quite hungry. We went to Texas Roadhouse simply because it was on the way to our destination and had a big group. We finished eating, but I happened to be with the subgroup that stayed out late to visit Bourbon Street. That ended up going much later than I had hoped. We didn’t get to our lodge until 3 am and we needed to be up by 5:30 am for breakfast before heading out on the water.

So after a mere two hour nap, we got up to get ready. The three who had been drinking didn’t get up in time to join us on the water today. I was paired up with one of the customers we invited and started catching speckled trout right away. Before I started catching the trout, I first caught a catfish, which needed to be released. The next fish I hooked after that I believe was the fish of the day for the whole group. It was a red fish bull, “bull” meaning it was too big to keep. It was 40” which is a gnarly fish to reel in. My partner was reeling in the trout super easy, but I had to fight this bull for a solid five minutes. My arms were so tired once I finally brought it in. I was a little nervous I wouldn’t be cut out to keep fishing the whole day, but that was by far the biggest fish I hooked.The spot we were getting the trout was amazing. We hit our limit of 30 within an hour. The rest of the day we looked for more red fish, but they were harder to find and trickier to reel in. Still an awesome time.

Finishing off our time on the water, we returned to the lodge, showered up, and took care of a bit of work. Then for dinner they prepped some of the trout we caught and it was glorious. I wanted more, but was completely stuffed. The rest of the evening was pretty chill. A bit of drinking and playing games, but I was so ready to hit the hay.

Day three was basically the same deal as day two. I was with two of the guys that missed the first day of fishing, so compared to them, I was feeling like a pro. We launched from a different area where there was a lot more open water. The first two spots we went to treated me so well. I’d cast my line and within seconds I’d have a bite. There were lots of small fish that we couldn’t keep, but I didn’t care. Just hooking a fish and reeling it in was a blast for me. Especially when I had a decent streak of five or six casts that I got to reel in. I didn’t hook anything crazy like the 40” red fish from day one, but I did reel in a decent 29” black fish that put up a fight. We made a competition of course for the biggest fish, but also for the fish with most spots. I thought that was lame compared to the biggest fish, until I reeled in one with 17 spots. Our guide hyped it up a lot and got me excited about it. To finish out the fishing for the day, we went to a very open area where we hooked up bigger fish. Oscar, one of the customers we invited on the trip reeled in the biggest fish on our boat. About a 31” red fish. To end the day back at the lodge, some of us tried to catch up on work and others just relaxed. A great day.

Thursday they finished up and made the flight home in the evening.

Back to work!

Landon - Blister Boy!

 

The Antelope Island Marathon had four distances. Full Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K and 5K. Landon opted for the 13.1 distance (half-marathon). He's been playing pickleball, and doing some running and hiking, but this was his first official race, and longest distance, since his ACL surgery last March. He didn't really even tell us about it until the day of ... Friday, October 11, 2024.

Per the race website: Antelope Island is home to 600 bison and the largest island on the Great Salt Lake. This course is a true marathon in that it is not all downhill like many. There are several rollers for the runners. The views of the race have the Great Salt Lake to the East and Antelope Island mountain on the West.

He said that his knee held up really well during the race, but that his shoes were rubbing pretty early one. Hot spot ... and big blister(s). He had to sit out pickleball that weekend. 

 

 

Cal&K8 ~ San Diego

 

Cal and Kate arranged for dog-sitting (Kate's mom taking care of Vera) and they jetted off for San Diego (October 5-7). As Grayson has made several trips there (earlier this year with friends, last year a trip with Landon in January, and then with Coop and Keaton in August) he had some recommendations of things to see, places to eat. One was Del Friscos, and he said he'd even pay for their meal.

They went to Del Friscos.

Kate said the butter cake was 10/10.

Some additional food photos ... and yes, the traditional finger photo with ice cream.

It's a Blackham thing.