Well, thanks to some last-minute improv by Finn (fashioning a tinfoil hat to make himself into a “conspiracy theorist”) and a quick trip to the Army surplus store (to bolster Henry’s military duds), both boys got into the swing of trick-or-treating this year, bringing home thousands of calories in loot. 🙃 Here’s a quick peek at their getups. [And check out our Halloween category for fun stuff from past years.]
As the chaps are scrambling around to devise some last-minute Halloween costumes, I thought it’d be fun to whip up a little Throwback Thursday gallery showing some of their fun getups from years gone by. Enjoy!
Believe it or not, there’s still a handful of stories, galleries, and videos from our summer adventure that we have yet to share here—so let’s use Throwback Thursday as an excuse to start finishing the tale.
As we’ve done for several years now, we headed out on the Arkansas River for a day of whitewater rafting.
This year we went all-in for an extended trip, meaning we could stop midway through, grab lunch, and enjoy sights like a giant banana-man leaping into the rapids. (Not to be outdone, Finn leapt, too!)
Here’s hoping that one day soon I’ll finish paring down the hours of footage captured via the dorky-looking cameras I insisted on affixing to Henry’s & my helmets. In the meantime, check out a gallery from our wet hot American summer.
“Life’s as big as you make it,” we always say, and I credit Finn with shaking off his hermit-y ways & pushing us to get out and about this past weekend. Off we went to camp in the middle of nowhere (“Well, it’s not the middle of nowhere,” observed Hen, “but you can see it from here”) on Saturday night.
The next day we horked down the world’s most satisfying breakfast at local diner Huckleberry’s, then drove to Castle Air Museum—a former Air Force base that’s now home to an immense B-36 bomber & dozens of other historic aircraft.
Seamus chilled in the shade of an immense deactivated H-bomb while everyone else endured my nonstop stream of aviation ephemera. 😛 (“Every rivet has a story, all of which I will tell you right now…”)
Check out a little (er, actually rather immense) gallery from the day—mostly courtesy of photog Henry.
We were all saddened by the passing of my Uncle Tedy, the colorful Chicago policeman/pianist/patriarch/raconteur about whom the boys have heard so much over the years. If only he & Henry could’ve spent a morning together, talking over stories from a long and eventful life; they’d have gotten along famously.
Happily, Hen & I were able to visit Chicago to attend services for Uncle Tedy on Friday & Saturday, and of course to visit our big, extended fam. As I noted beforehand, “I’m drawing Henry an org chart for our Irish Catholic family; might be a long night”—and it was! That’s a great problem to have, and it was a treat to see so many folks over the course of the weekend.
Henry in particular enjoyed old photos, and given that he’s long wanted a mustache of his own, he remarked, “Wow, I would love to have Uncle Tedy’s! He looks like Burt Reynolds. He’s the Bandit minus the cowboy hat!”
Here’s Tedy with his old partner, the late actor Dennis Farina:
Hen certainly appreciated the Nadile family’s generosity in taking everyone out to eat at Morton’s after the funeral. Sad as the occasion was, I know Uncle Tedy would’ve been delighted to bring together so much family.
On Sunday we got to have lunch with Chris & Karren Hertzig (visiting from Rhode Island) as well as Aunt Jane, Sarah, and Young John. Afterwards we drove to Lighthouse Beach on Lake Michigan, where we met up with Liz & Patrick, then dropped by the nearby Baha’i Temple and scored some great Chicago hot dogs (a priority of Hen’s).
Here’s a little gallery of images from the day.
