A new Halloween Tradition

Our longest "together" friend (ie the person who Richard & I know as a couple the longest) Sue and her husband Darrin put on a Haunted House every year. It's something Darrin started long before he met Sue and has kept it up every year even though he's now a big shot transplant surgeon! They transform their 3 car garage into a scary smoky maze full of special effects and very gory people. This year we decided to drive up to Jacksonville for Halloween. Jen & Jeremy had already volunteered to help at the haunted house and this way our kids could go trick-or-treating with Sue & Darrin's kids and we could finally see the famous Haunted House.
Every year all the money they make gets donated to a worthy cause. This year all the profits went to breast cancer research and they did quite well, raising over $1000. They don't actually charge to get into the house but donations are accepted.

Jen was a "mad" surgeon and did a great job scaring the kids and adults alike and yes, that's Nathaniel in the background giving her "a hand!"



Funny story.. at one point Jen had this plate of brains and said to one little girl "Would you like a taste of my brains?" And the girl said "sure" and scooped some out with her hand and popped it in her mouth before Jen could stop her. Fortunately they were made from watermelon jello ~ but unfortunately for the rest of the night there was a scoop missing. Jen never offered the brains to anyone again!
Richard was just outside the exit to the haunted house so just when they thought it was over he would jump out at them ~ and then show them the way out. Here he is with Nathaniel (who changed masks about 6 times that night!)

Here is our host Darrin with one of the workers. I think this was the coolest room ~ as you can see it's black & white striped and they have a strobe light going the entire time.
They also had this guy under glass in the floor (not a job I could do!) and when people would walk over him he'd pound on the glass and scream
When we first got their I took about 7 kids (ours, theirs and those of some of the other "workers" trick-or-treating. We went up one side of the street and back down on the other side. Non of the kids were interested in going any further. They all wanted to get back to the haunted house! Here are the girls I took out. I'd show you the boys but they all had masks or full face hoods so you really couldn't tell who they were anyway. Just in case you are wondering Julianne (in blue) was Sharpey from High School Musical (the original!)

Here is the best picture of Nate all night. He found this hat complete with dreds in amoung the hundreds of costumes Sue & Darrin keep
Here are our host and hostess in their kitchen after we shut down. She had pizzas and made a graveyard dessert for all the workers
Here's one of "most" of the workers ~ some had already left and some had already changed out of their costumers
In any case, we were all exhausted but had a great time and I think this could become our new Halloween Tradition!