Baby it's cold outside.....

This weekend was the annual Hickory Hills Halloween Outing. We have had this celebration for 5 years now, and it's always been wonderful temperature-wise. Usually this time of year we are dealing with the "autumn beetle" (looks like a lady bug, it invades Iowa every fall when the farmer's harvest: I will write more on that when we actually have them invade us!) and the temps are usually pretty comfortable, sometimes even a bit warm (hot). This year it was unseasonably cold. No autumn beetles (which is a good thing), and sadly the trees are already losing their leaves, so probably not much of a color show this year.

So, back to the Halloween outing....This is usually the only weekend that the campground is completely full. People make their reservations early in the year to be able to have the perfect spot for this weekend. Everyone decorates their campsites festively, they have a costume contest, a haunted house and everyone just gets in the Halloween mood.  Especially since it's probably the last campout for most of them.

This year it was sooooo cold, though. The temps Friday were around 55 and the high for Saturday was a balmy 45 or so. And of course, you have to have the wind. The sun did peak out every now and then, but the best place to be was as close to the campfire as possible.....preferably with an alcoholic beverage in hand. Al had to run around and tell everyone to disconnect their water from their campers, as the low last night was only 20 degrees.  And there were actually a couple pop-ups even. That had to be a bit miserable in my opinion.  (Even though we had our camper in the campground, we didn't sleep in it for two reasons: the furnace quit last week. (brand new camper, who can figure?) and why would you sleep in a frozen camper when your house and king bed is only 1/4 mile away?) It's nice to have it there for the bathroom and as a place to put the dogs when they get cranky, but I'm not going to sleep there when my own bed is so close.....

But surprisingly, the campground was almost full (maybe 4 sites empty) and I think everyone had a great time. There were noticeably less kids Trick-or-Treating, but overall it was a good time.  This is Danielle, Colby and Kennedy. Danielle is a volleyball friend of mine that came out last year, had a great time and couldn't wait to reserve for this year. (sorry it was so cold this year! I PROMISE next year will be better!) Nice costume Danielle!

This is Dave, Ann, Dawson and Macie. They won the group contest: Buzz Lightyear, Woody and the whole gang. (Ann actually borrowed Al's Carharts! She had to have LOTS of pillows for stuffing, there is a BIT of a size difference)

Overall, I think it turned out pretty good in spite of the weather. The kids all had a great time and didn't seem to mind the cold as much as the adults. Although it was pretty quiet pretty early in the evening.  And I was sooooo glad to get back to the house with the woodstove roaring. I'm really not ready for winter or the cold. Maybe I'm just ready to go south, you think?