We spent a long weekend in Seattle, where the rest of my immediate family lives - my parents, brother and sister, their spouses and their children, as well as more extended family. It was our first Halloween away from Texas as a family, and offered the occasion to reflect on the fact that I had not yet in my life packed a Halloween costume for air travel. Memo to self: Cheap plastic tiaras do not travel well.

We've lived in central Texas for a few years, but haven't yet identified any great neighborhoods for trick-or-treating, nor any ready companions Z's age to go trick-or-treating with, so have spent previous Halloweens at local church carnivals or mall trick-or-treating, which offers great opportunities for costume comparison but not a lot of that traditional Halloween flavor. So we were thrilled to be able to partake of the old-fashioned door-to-door this year with Z's cousins, the four-year-old G (dressed as a cape-wearing dragon), two-year-old C, a tiger who struggled to keep up with his peeps, and five-month-old L, a ladybug who obliviously made the rounds with her mother, Emily.

The curious costume Z sported this year evolved from an earlier interest she had of being a princess riding a hippopotamus. Her pantomime horse costume (which she rode as a ladybug cowgirl last year) was slated to be dressed as a hippo (somehow) while she rode it in a princess costume. Hippo parts were discovered in a stuffed animal we found at IKEA and planned to hack apart for its face and possibly its legs.

But when she tried the horse on a week ago and declared it "too heavy," she decided she'd rather be both a princess and a hippo. Now, I suppose we could have tried to formally dress her as a hippo, but masks are problematic for some four-year-olds, and once the mask was abandoned, we knew we'd be left with a straight-up princess, which excited no one. So we introduced the hippo elsewhere.


The cape has a hippo-patterned lining.


The hippo-headed hat, with a tiara that serves both faces.

Highlights included a trip to Everett's outstanding Imagine Children's Museum (which does more in its small space than the bigger Seattle Children's Museum does with much more), and a visit to Carkeek Park, one of the most beautiful Seattle parks I've ever been to, and had never been to before. The trails, with their blanket of bright yellow fall leaves, greenery, and late afternoon light, were magical, and there was beach access to boot. The park has an old pioneer orchard we didn't get to on this visit, and my brother Josh says he loves meandering up its access trail to pick salmon berries and huckleberries when they're in season.

A few photos from the trip:


A hay bale maze


Lots of this, at the park across the street from the grandparents' house


Family time


Koi feeding