Utah Halloween party & Trip

We drove up to Utah the day after my birthday for the annual Roylance Halloween party. We scheduled the party the same weekend as a race that my brother organized so that I, (and other people coming from out of town) could be a part of it. My brother, Joseph has a good friend from college (that married his good friend from High School) and she is fighting stage 4 Melanoma cancer. He was looking for ways to help them and give support. She has been a personal trainer, and has always been very active. He organized a benefit run for her with the help of some of his other friends. It was a great experience. I was so impressed at what a good job he did. There was a great turn out of people, many people that knew her, and many that didn't know her, but heard her story and wanted to help. It was a great race, and lots of fun. There was a 10K run, 5K run, and a 1 mile fun run/walk.

Hayden was excited to run his very first race. He was a fast little runner too! Way to go Hayden!

My friend, Nicole came to the race too. It was great to see her!

Fun pic with my brothers and sisters - all ready for the race!

With my sisters and nieces and nephew before the race.

.

Hayden and Rebecca ready to start the race. Rebecca made it part way before she tripped and then got to ride the rest of the way on Jerry's shoulders.

Here I am, exhausted as I was finishing the 10K. It was a great run though.

After the race we had a couple hours to decompress and get ready for the Halloween party. We love going up to my family's Halloween party every year. It is so fun, and the costumes are so creative. Each year I wonder how last year's costumes will be topped, but every year they are. Here are some pictures of past Halloween costumes. And Here. I'll have to add the previous year's pictures as well sometime.

Our fun Halloween costumes! Hayden and Rebecca wanted to be Iron Man and Ariel, but we also wanted to have a fun family theme. So they are part of Sydney's (Queen of Hearts) Royal Court.

After our entrance and pictures, they were able to take off the cards and were the other characters.

Alice and the Mad Hatter

Close up of Jerry, to see his cool eyebrows and make up!

Full shot of Jerry - and sorry, but I have to brag. I made the outfit - thank you very much. We did buy the hat with hair, and eyebrows. But I made the rest

One more pat on the back, but I made my Alice outfit too. It took lots of time, but fun to try on my own, and it was fun. Besides now I can brag about it forever.

This is my nephew, Daniel, and my niece, Rachel. They are from Colorado, but going to BYU. It was so fun to have them come to the party. They were Hansel and Gretel.

Isn't that the cutest Queen of Hearts you've ever seen?!?

My sister, Esther flew in from Seattle for the party. (I'm telling ya, it's a big deal!) She was a very spooky Lady in White.

Mark and Karen's family were fantasy characters. So fun. Mark and the boys were hardly recognizable in their costumes. Karen and all the fairy girls were just so cute.

Joseph and Angela's family dressed up as fast food mascots. Complete with the Burger King, Wendy, Ronald McDonald, Colonel Sanders, and the Arby's oven mitt.

I had to get a close up of this little cutie. I love the little beard on his chin.

Elizabeth and Darrin's family dressed as the Brady Bunch. Too funny! They had all the moves down too. It was great.

Rebecca and Chad's family dressed as God's and Goddesses. Zeus, Medusa, Aphrodite, Hermes, etc. (Sorry, Rebecca I forgot the others' characters.) Great costumes!

For part of the party we went on a photo scavenger hunt. It was very fun. This is a picture of Hayden sleeping upside down like a bat.

We were doing the "Monster Mash."

Posing by a headstone. This was the closest thing we could find.

Making a train down the slide.

We also played a challenging game of Halloween Fear Factor. The kids had to eat eyeballs. (Gummy eyeballs in jello)

I made it past the first challenge of eating a witch finger (chocolate dipped cooked beans - disgusting!) And this was the next challenge. We had to tie a paddle board to our waist and set off a mouse trap with the ball, without using our hands. Passed that!! Then the final challenge was to take a fireball out of a cage full of live crickets - gross! and unwrap the fireball and eat it the fastest. Thanks to my strong teeth I won that challenge to be the grand winner! Yes, I'm bragging a lot in this post!

The kids broke a pumpkin pinata!

And they got lots of candy!

Esther freaked us all out with scary poses in the bushes.

And we all had a great, tiring day! It was a great party. Thanks to Rebecca for hosting and planning it all. She does a wonderful job every year!

After the party we had another couple hours to decompress again, then we went to dinner with my brothers and sisters without kids, and laughed and laughed till our sides hurt. It was a wonderful night.