Goodbye Darth Daddy

Once upon a time, there was a young family, and Corey, the father of that young family, was in business school at BYU. Joseph, the oldest child, was in kindergarten, and he was really into Star Wars. For some reason, given their student loans and lack of income, the mother of this family thought it would be a wonderful idea for Halloween to impulsively spend lots of money on a Darth Vader costume on ebay. So she did, without the father's knowledge or consent. When the costume arrived in the mail, the kids were super excited.

Even the 5 month old could hardly contain himself.

As the days went on, the novelty didn't wear off, and like any father struggling to provide, poor Corey felt a wee bit unappreciated and burdened (he had a lot of homework to do...) as his kids would inform him that they wanted to play Star Wars and that they needed a Darth Vader, "...so go suit up."

But like all great fathers, he did. Again and again.

After Halloween was over, Corey was glad to see the costume boxed up and packed away. However each following Halloween, the kids remembered their fun Star Wars memories and were eager to make their dad put it on again. He did reluctantly, unless he could find another victim to take his place. One year he got his dad to put it on and be Grandpa Vader, another year he got a short friend from Uruguay to put it on, and we had a Spanish Vader (that one was pretty funny).

One year we went to a park with extended family for an ultimate lightsaber fight. We came prepared with the Darth Vader costume for Corey to don at the battle's climax. That evening proved to be particularly frustrating for Daddy Vader, for not only did he have his own children attacking him, but there were nieces and nephews and every other child in the park, who upon seeing Darth Vader mustered their last bits of valor to face him. They all seemed to feel that this was perhaps their one big chance to prove their bravery once and for all against the evil embodied before them. Corey proceeded to get swarmed by children and hit with lightsabers and sticks. He also had his cape stepped on which not only caused the helmet to fall off balance, thus causing a loss of vision, but also choked him. Corey was done. Luckily the next year they missed their Vader for Halloween cause they were out of the country, and for the years after that, the kids didn't remember the poor Vader costume anymore (much to the father's relief).

So then came Halloween 2013. Tiffanie saw the Darth Vader costume boxed up high in the garage with dust it had collected from the past 3 years. Hmm, I began to think, I bet I know of a certain group of clever and funny people who could use this, and they might even enjoy it (aka wouldn't be attacked by kids wearing it) and they could also give lots of other people a good laugh while wearing it... Studio C anyone? Darth Sidious?

Yes, this is a good idea. So I facebooked Studio C a message to ask if they'd like a super cool "ultimate supreme" official Darth Vader replica costume for their wardrobe. When they said they'd love it, I thought I'd ask for everyone's consent (unlike when I purchased it). Corey was happy cause not only would he be glad to officially get rid of it, but to give it to BYU, even better, he'd do anything for BYU. And the kids would do anything for Studio C, it is a win-win. Before we delivered it, I let the kids attack the box with markers and write their favorite sketch quotes on it along with a few notes to the cast.

The toddlers even got in on the action. Lily drew lots of hearts and some of the letters of the alphabet~

And Sophi did a good job following what her siblings did, which, as far as she could tell, was to hurry and scribble on the box somewhere and then switch your marker and do it again. (It was cute)

So it has now come full circle - we bought this when we were in student housing at BYU and now the BYU Broadcasting Building will be it's permanent home, how appropriate. And hopefully we'll all see Darth Vader soon on BYUtv!!

**Update**

I got this picture on 11/19 from Studio C saying thanks for the love notes plastered all over the box that the costume was in. Could they tell that we love them? :)

~The kids felt pretty special. So fun, love Studio C!