Halloween through the years

I was going through a lot of old photos this morning, thinking of my dad (whose birthday it is) and many of the Halloween's of my childhood.  Halloween was always a big deal at my house, obviously, since it was my dad's birthday.  We loved the story our grandma used to tell of how when my dad was little, he thought people were coming to the door to get candy just because it was his birthday!  My dad's middle name is Hal, in honor of Halloween as well.  As long as I had known him, my dad had the exact same costume every year:  a Blues Brother.  I think he was one of the two specifically, but I don't remember which one.  Oddly enough, despite the years and years and years of seeing that costume, I have yet to see that movie or learn anything about the Blues Brothers.  I found a lot of great pics of my family and our various costumes over the years.  Not too many of my mom, unfortunately, as she hated having her picture taken when we were younger.  I also found a lot of pics of us in random costumes not in Halloween time and some nice general fall pictures

Professor Snape!!!!

Dressed as Tom Kaulitz from Tokio Hotel, a German emo rock band

Tokio Hotel!  Amanda as Georg, Kristin as Bill, and me as Tom

Bill Kaulitz pumpkin that my brother carved for me

Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Prince Zuko "firebending"

And random pics of us in "costumes" not at Halloween time....

Julia dressed as a hipster or Julia the hipster in her natural habitat?  The world will never know...

Julia is Mabel from Gravity Falls!  

Tay is dressing up as a dude from Digimon

Even Solomon is forced to participate!

Finally another pic of mom!

I don't know if mom is being Santa for Halloween or if it is Christmastime...

Taylor as the Lone Ranger for his birthday

British Literature at its best: Pooh Bear and Shakespeare

This weekend while I was at the temple I took a little detour and visited a part of Ashdown Forest.  This particular trail was near where A.A. Milne and his family lived, and thus the stories of Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends all take place in this area.  I had a little brochure from Ashdown Forest that explained where different sites actually were, as described years ago by the adult Christopher Robin.  So here are pictures I took while on the trail!

Galleons Lap--The Enchanted Place! (because, as young Christopher Robin reported, nobody had ever been able to count whether there were 63 or 64 trees.  I myself counted about 91, but was a little unsure about that number, so I think it really must have been enchanted)

Heffalump Trap by the Lone Pine

A.A. Milne Memorial

Roo's Sandy Pit

NorTH PoLE, DISCovERED By PooH, PooH FouND IT (where Roo fell into a stream and Pooh fished him out using a pole, which could have been no other than the North Pole itself)

I also tried to play Pooh Sticks here, but after throwing in 3 different sticks, I still couldn't get one to come out under the other side of the bridge

100 Aker Wood, where Owl lived

Eeyore's Gloomy Place

Other pretty pictures from walking the trail

Also recently I took a trip into London to see a Shakespeare play at the Globe Theatre.  It was so fantastic!!!  I saw "Comedy of Errors", which was soooo hilarious!!  I loved the play so much, and the atmosphere was fabulous!