Happy Easter!

On your marks, get set... GO! It was really hard to catch Erick and Izzie - they just move too fast when easter eggs are involved! If I could only harness this energy toward their chores...

Kristy helped Audrey maximize her load of eggs, although she had to do it carefully or risk a "No! All by MYSELF!" chastizement from the little one. Notice the green egg in the tree in the foregroud?

Aha!

Grandma hollered locations from her lookout on the deck. She loved the "warm/cold" game. :-)

Again, they were so fast! Izzie and Erick had both heard grandma's direction about the trampoline, and the race was on to get there first!

Rob and Kristy hid the eggs, and did a fantastic job! Nobody counted them beforehand, so there may even be more today... I love those "hidden treasure" kind of stories. You just never know what will be unearthed in a few months!

We started out with smaller baskets, but there were so many eggs to find that grandma dug out some of her old baskets! They had names on the top - Sam, Matt and Shelly. Good times. :-)

Everyone got PLENTY of loot this time around, though. Audrey got more money than any of the other kids, which was fun, and Erick's been caught more than once gorging when he wasn't supposed to be... like, right before meals. I'll be glad when it's gone!

So for the easter checklist this year and the less exciting things we didn't get pictures of - we DID read the easter story - in fact this year we held our first "Sunrise Service", and I LOVED it. There was a beautiful spirit in the air when you all get up just before the sun comes up and read those words (more or less) that Mary went early to the tomb, before the sun came up... if you haven't tried this, it was awesome! We sang a few easter songs and ended with a yummy breafast.

We did easter bunny and the city hunt on Saturday, then had a cookout and roasted hotdogs over the firepit. Izzie's funny for the day, out roasting her 'dog, was "Grandpa, I sure hope this hotdog is done, because I am!" Very funny. ;-)

We saw "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at a theater in Provo, and for those of you who knew her, I ran into Katy Gregson and her beautiful daughter. Of course she has another last name now, and a couple more little ones, but it was really fun to catch up some and she and I had some laughs at "the old days." I just love doing that these days! The play itself was fantastic, and the kids were completely entranced. It was a small theater and they were right on the front row. I was certain at some point Audrey would run right up on stage! I'd totally go again.

Sunday was the sunrise service, then Church. If you're ever asked to help out in the nursery, Easter sunday was a great day for that! Small classes and Macey's easter sugar cookies for snacktime - I hardly missed the sunday school lesson. Just kidding honey. (justin teaches GD).

Easter dinner at Grandma's, and "Finding Faith in Christ" to close it all off. It was a wonderful weekend, and while all too often I feel Easter flies by me with only a subtle nod, I set a goal this year to do better and feel really good about what we accomplished. I'd love to hear about others' Easter traditions, and what you do (or plan to do someday) to make the day special! Happy Easter!