Bewitched

And not in a good way.
Oh, look it's a cute family picture with festive pumpkins and hay. But look closer....Look at my strained smile from holding it way too long while my camera yet again malfunctioned. Look at Ashton's annoyed half grin as his 5-year-old patience runs very thin. Look at Zander's complete disregard for the situation as his 1-year-old patience is non-existent. Look at poor David who apparently grew a glass eye while we were sitting there hoping for a decent family shot that wasn't going to happen.
Sigh....
Last night we felt the need to do something festive so after David got off of work and we got everyone bundled up and the gas tank filled, we headed up to Salt Lake to mosey around Gardner Village. When we got there just before eight the place was still packed and we couldn't find parking. Eventually we found a place and after securing coats and hats and stroller seat belts we rolled into our first shop only to find a big huge CLOSED sign in our face.
What the???
I could have sworn that all the places closed at nine and that getting there at eight would have given us just enough time to wander around for an hour before the kids started whining and we all got too cold (It is 44 degrees here all the sudden). But no, we had barely gotten a chill in our feet before our plans were rebuffed and our entire event a bust.
There were still TONS of people walking around, why would these people want to close up all their shops at 8pm on a Friday night? Look at how much business they were losing! Sure most of us were just going to squeeze our families through their tiny little shops and man-handle their antiques with no intention of purchasing them, but we were at least going to spring for a hot chocolate and consider buying something holiday-themed if it was on sale and under 20 bucks! Then I quickly corrected myself by noting that the shop workers were all teenaged employees who couldn't care less about business for their shop owners and were hurriedly shooing out said business so they could close up and go out with their friends. Meanwhile, dejected little families like ours were left sad and hungry out in the cold....
Well, we were at least going to get some cute pictures out of it I resolved. That was before my camera decided it was going to go the way of the Halloween theme and "give up the ghost". We got this camera last year before our Disneyland trip and about a month or so ago it started occasionally going weirdo and distorting colors and sometimes going pitch black all together causing me to lose some very adorable moments.
Well, last night "occasionally" turned into "almost always" and I only got away with a few shots that were okay. This further soured my mood.
Despite the disappointment, Ashton managed to make a few friends:

And allow his Mom to hold him down for a few seconds for a picture:

Zander strolled around with Dad like he owned the place:

And entertained the masses with his characteristic animal scowl which accompanies his loud puppy-dog bark impersonation:

But David quickly lost patience with my attempts to get pictures of him and the boys with the broken camera.

So they played around a little longer while I huffed and pouted about the camera. So I suppose I was able to get into the holiday mood after all...I ended the night a real Witchy Woman (I know, I know, but I couldn't resist).