Nate, Tara, and Peter

Happy Halloween!  Nate finally took part of my family’s tradition of “extreme” pumpkin carving.  My dad started to carve crazy pumpkins the first year my parents were married.  Apparently his pumpkin was so scary a little girl didn’t want to go up to the door because it was too scary.  I started to carve “seriously” when I got into junior high and high school.  Last election, we carved George Bush and John Kerry.  So, naturally, we decided we had to do it again.  My sister, Tessa, carved Barack Obama and my dad tried to do John McCain.  Well, McCain didn’t turn out so well and Tessa didn’t want to just put Obama on the porch because, after all, she doesn’t support Obama.  Nate and I went down to the garden store in Vineyard just down from my parents house and we bought two $3 pumpkins.  We were too busy last year with Halloween in the middle of the week to carve pumpkins so this was Nate’s first experience with the family.  I decided to try my hand at McCain so Tessa would put her pumpkin out and Nate set off on a howling Wolf.  I was worried about the details of the wolf and the moon surrounding it, but he did a great job.  Very impressive for a first time not just cutting out triangle eyes.  While I was carving my pumpkin (the Trick-or-Treaters were already out) Tessa wrote a note for the door that said, “We are not Obama supporters…McCain is under construction!”  Luckily, Nate and I were both surprisingly speedy with our pumpkins and we got them out for the majority of the Trick-or-Treaters to see.  I’m still not sure who to vote for, I don’t like either one.  Maybe I’ll write my dad in.  At any rate, here are some pictures.  They didn’t turn out quite as clear as I would have hoped and they don’t do the pumpkins justice, but I hope you enjoy them.  There’s also one in there of Beavis courtesy of my youngest brother, Tanner.