Halloween: Birthday Party + Haunted House

Since Hunter's birthday was October 29th, it was celebrated with a combination 

Halloween / Birthday Party this year.

Three candles for the big three year old!

Christa's whole side of the family was there, too, 

so of course he got spoiled with lots of presents from everyone:

Had to try and get a selfie with the cutest Mickey Mouse 

ever before we went trick-or-treating!

My pumpkin was all lit up outside!  Turned out pretty good if you ask me.

Shannon and I before and after trick-or-treating with all the kids.  

It was a cold night in KC!

Two-thirds of my family: (missing four)  (And yes, Shannon counts as family.)

So the whole night, Allie was asking if I could take her to the haunted houses downtown.  I always let the kids choose something fun to do for their birthdays (experiences over material gifts!), and she chose this.  

Haunted. Freaking. Houses.

And I can't tell her no.  Ever.  

So at 9pm, we drove to my house, Shannon and I changed clothes, and we headed downtown to visit The Beast -- which happened to be ranked the second most haunted house in the nation!

As soon as we got out of the car and started walking towards it, this crazy looking thing came up and grabbed my neck and made the creepiest/scariest  growl or snort noise I've ever heard.  

I screamed -- then laughed.  It's what it's all about!  Getting scared!  Allie, however, teared up right away.  Scared tears.  Not like the, 'That was so funny I can't stop laughing" tears.

Begging, pulling on my arm, "Pleeease Terri!  Please don't make me do this!!"  

Ha - I thought it was kind of funny, but I have to admit, I felt bad for her.  She was clearly terrified, and I didn't know why!  I mean, what did she expect?  To not be scared at all?  She couldn't explain to me how or why she went from all about it to I'm waiting in the car in 5 minutes, so I put her on the phone with her mom.

Didn't help.  She still wanted to leave.  Shannon distracted her by taking her to get some hot chocolate, and we calmly talked about it for the next 45 minutes while we waited in line (shivering from the cold).  

We barely had her convinced to just go in with her eyes shut for two minutes, holding on to me, and then she could leave out one of the chicken exits they have.  She wasn't happy about it at all, but gave in.  (I wasn't about to let her not go in anyways...)

While we were waiting, this creepy thing was riding up and down the block:

Left pic:  Shannon is holding up Allie's arms - trying to pretend she's excited.  

Right pic:  Allie showing is how she was going to walk in to the haunted house.

Tickets in hand!  No turning back now!

It's not even worth it to try and describe the scene that went on once inside.  I'll just say it was a human train - me leading, Allie literally attached to me as close as she could possibly be, then my bosses 15 year old son, then Shannon.  

Pretty sure all three of them had their eyes shut the whole way while I was trying to be the brave sole walking around in the dark getting freaked out every time someone/something else jumped out at me.

It's worth mentioning that at one point, we had to crawl on our hands and knees through a small opening.  Except Allie literally would not get off of me.  I was crawling with her ON my back.  That's how attached to me she was the whole time!

I turned my cell phone on here to see just what exactly I was getting myself in to.  A pitch black tunnel / slide.  Not cool.

The good news is, by the end of it, Allie LOVED it more than anyone else.  She was all high-fiving and screaming about how much fun she had.

And I was, like, excuse me?  Little miss I'm not turning loose of you or opening my eyes for anything??  Haha.  Kids are the best.  I'm so glad she went and I'm so glad she had fun.  Good times, for sure.  And a really late night.  I dropped her off at home at 1am!

Oh, and to get out of it at the end, you had to jump out of a three story window.  For real.  

Videos are here:  Me and Allie from up top

                 Allie (from below)

                       Shannon (from below)

I have a feeling Allie and I might be hitting up another one of these next year... 

Weekend Recap: Wichita Wedding

One of my BFF's from high school got married in Wichita 

and I was honored to play the part of bridesmaid on her special day!

Friday night drive from KC to Wichita (where I missed the rehearsal!)

Hair appointment bright and early Saturday morning.  

I gave the stylist the pic on the left...I wanted a messy side braid.  

And I ended up with the pic on the right.  

Ummm...is there really a braid in there?  

(There is...somewhere.  She definitely nailed the messy part!)

After lunch and football watching, we went to the venue - Scottish Rite Center - to finish getting ready.

The bride getting in her dress!

 The afternoon entailed a lot of waiting.  Followed by more waiting. 

(It takes 6 girls a long time to get ready!)

The wedding went off without a hitch, and in no time at all we had Mr. & Mrs. Porter!

The party started immediately.  

A cup of Apple Pie Moonshine and a PARTY.BUS.

I can't wait to see the pictures the photographers got at the locations we stopped at.  

(And the ones from the bus, of course...)

We were gone about an hour and a half.  Came back to the dinner/reception...and DANCE.

That moonshine had me feeling pretty good.  Clearly.  

Gettin.  Down.

 The bridesmaids had a little surprise dance to "Free Your Mind" for the bride.  

For not EVER rehearsing it and learning it the day before the wedding, 

I think it went okay.  Kind of.

(Video here.)

We danced until around 11, and then headed to the bars.  

Since I was the only sober one (the half a glas of Moonshine I had at 6pm had worn off by then) I got to drive....8 people.  Please note that two of the people in the picture below are actually sitting IN car seats.  Like car seats for babies.  No joke. 

We didn't last long at the bars, which I was okay with.

I drove the bride and groom back to the hotel, and their song was playing in the lobby.  

So they danced to it, of course!

Drunk and dancing at 1am on their wedding night.  Love it.

 It took Jaime and I approximately 20 minutes to get all 8,000 bobby pins out of our hair.  

Oh and my dress?  Yeah, that ended up in the trash can at the hotel.  The zipper got stuck and I was so over being in it by that point that I just quit dealing with it and ripped it off.  The picture is pretty good, but not quite blog appropriate, haha.

$160 for about 10 hours of wear time.  That's not good...

Weekend Recap: Folly Beach Wedding

Quick (less than 48 hour) trip to Charleston and Folly Beach for a wedding:

It came out in the news the day I left that another person had been diagnosed with ebola...and she had recently been on an airplane.  That prompted some nice gifts from my co-workers (face mask, hand sanitizer, etc) so I didn't bring it back to the office with me after my travels.

Turns out wearing a mask on an airplane is a sure way to get the whole row to yourself.  Not one person would sit next to me, haha!

I slept almost the whole way (laying down, since I had the row to myself!) and woke up to this gorgeous view out my window:

Once I landed and picked up the rental car, I took off for Folly Beach to meet up with these two crazies...who I literally saw on the street as I was driving to the hotel.

Parked the car and went straight in to a bar with them. 

A bar full of dudes, that is.  So many, in fact, that we actually thought we were at a gay bar!

Really, dude?  I'm pretty sure my arms are bigger than yours...

We had way too much fun dancing before calling it a night a little after midnight.  It was like the old college days, haha.

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We purposely left the curtains open in our hotel room, which was ON the beach, so I would wake up to see the sunrise.  It didn't disappoint:

I couldn't go back to sleep after that, so I got up and went for a 4 mile jog along the ocean

After breakfast, Laura and I shopped...and shopped and shopped.

There was a street fair kind of thing going on (Follypalooza) with live music, and since it's the end of the beach season, almost everything was 50% off!

Ended up with a sweet new Nixon watch (I can't help myself when it comes to Nixons), a dress, a shirt, some cool shoes, a Christmas ornament...all kinds of good stuff!

Also?  Found all kinds of NOT good stuff...

Went back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for the 1pm wedding.

Learned a very important lesson:  always check the hotel iron and make sure it's clean before you iron your dress.

(Thank goodness I brought a backup!)

After a little confusion as to the address of the wedding (Kelsey sent us the address where she was staying, not the address of the wedding), we made it to the spot just on time -- thanks to me flying down a one-way going the wrong direction.

Laura and I waiting for the ceremony to start

The location for the wedding:

Kelsey's dad walked her down, they said some vows, exchanged the rings, and sealed the deal with a kiss!

MR. AND MRS. HOYLE

My best friend...since the age of about 3 months old

After the ceremony, we hung out at the house, drank beer, ate barbeque...

...and watched football. :)

K-State upset OU with a 31 - 30 victory!

Pictures were postponed until after the game was over. 

 (Kelsey is a big fan, what can I say.)

Me and the happy couple

The brides beach picture vs my beach picture:

Celebrating the KSU win over OU:

Laura and I eventually went back to the hotel for a nap.  Set the alarm just in time to catch a pretty sweet sunset from our balcony!

I wore my new dress out that night, and got a hilarious response from my sister-in-law:

Hit up some bars and again had WAY too much fun dancing the night away.  

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Sunday morning:  

Did another 4 miles on the beach, showered, and found a church to go to.

Followed that up with a little historical tour of Charleston (couldn't drag myself to go to one of the plantaions), and an off-the-beaten-path adventure in the swamps.  Because, why not? 

Headed back to the airport that evening for my typical Sunday night:

AIRPORT TIME!