Easter

We had a really nice Easter this year. The morning of Easter we surprised Carson with sand and sand toys in his sandbox that someone gave us last year. He was so excited and he played out there all morning. I make Easter shaped pancakes and we had a little lesson on Christ. Leading up to Easter we had been opening an egg every day as part of our scripture study. Inside the eggs were scriptures and an object associated with Christ and the events of Easter Weekend and the Resurrection. We also shared the testimonies of our family members with the kids that I had collected earlier. It was nice to really try and focus on the Savior and why we celebrate Easter.

Carson cracks me up. He has been making silly faces in pictures lately, and this thumbs-up one is one of his favorites. Haha!

Carly and Will came over for the day and went to church with us. After church we had a nice Easter dinner and then Jason and Will hid eggs for the kids in the backyard. By hid, I really mean covered the lawn in eggs.

 It was a great day. I love Easter. I love the meaning behind it and I am so eternally grateful for a loving Savior that came to Earth and atoned for my sins. He bore my griefs and carried my sorrows. He kept His promise and rose again on the third day.

One of my favorite talks about Easter is by Elder Holland. He says the following,

"My other plea at Easter time is that these scenes of Christ’s lonely sacrifice, laced with moments of denial and abandonment and, at least once, outright betrayal, must never be reenacted by us. He has walked alone once. Now, may I ask that never again will He have to confront sin without our aid and assistance, that never again will He find only unresponsive onlookers when He sees you and me along His Via Dolorosain our present day. As we approach this holy week—Passover Thursday with its Paschal Lamb, atoning Friday with its cross, Resurrection Sunday with its empty tomb—may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,” ²¹ for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. "

Easter Egg Hunts

We had lots of fun celebrating Easter this year. Easter means the start idea hope of Spring, which always makes us excited. About a week before Easter, our playgroup had a craft and Easter egg hunt. The kids had fun and Carson was so nice about helping Brooklyn find eggs. Once she realized there was chocolate and candy in the eggs, she wasn't too interested in finding more. Carson helped her see reason and soon she was on her way again.

Ok, so I have to tell you my feelings about the Easter Bunny. Sigh. I don't hate the Easter Bunny. I grew up with the Easter Bunny in my house and I don't think there is anything wrong with having fun with the tradition. In fact, I don't not talk about the Easter Bunny, but we just don't focus on it. The Easter baskets don't come from the Easter Bunny, they come from Mom and Dad. We don't really talk about the Easter Bunny and hiding eggs is a fun tradition that we do as part of Easter. Again, I don't have anything against him, but we just don't really celebrate him. He is just another part of Easter that we might happen to see and take pictures with, if that makes sense.  It's not even something we consciously did, it just kind of happened that way. Besides, have you ever seen a not-creepy Easter Bunny costume? haha! Carson saw this Easter Bunny at an egg hunt we went to and he HAD to take a picture. Is it just me, or is he creepy looking?!

The day before Easter we went to an Easter Egg hunt in town. There are several, and this one was smaller than most - which meant less kids. The rule was that no adults could touch the eggs, so poor Morgan couldn't figure out what we were doing to her. She did manage to get 3 eggs in her bucket....with at little help from Uncle Will and Aunt Carly.

After the Easter Egg hunt, we went to Yellowstone Bear World for their Easter Egg hunt and their cub celebration. We went last year and we had a lot of fun so we decided to go again. Yeah, so did everyone else in Eastern Idaho. It took us about an hour just to get into the park the line of cars was so long. With all of the crazy people there, we decided not to do the egg hunt and just have fun riding the rides and looking at all of the animals.

Brooklyn and Carson both really enjoyed all of the rides they have there. They are meant for little kids their size and you can ride them as much as you want. We spent most of our time there and then went to the petting zoo area. Brooklyn is the braver of the two kids and would get a lot closer to the animals than Carson would.

 After we drove through the park and watched all the bears, we went home and rested. Later that evening we went to Orange Leaf and had some yummy ice cream. :) It was a fun-filled and exhausting day!

Chick-Fil-A Super Hero Night

Chick-Fil-A has fun family nights each month and last month was Super Hero night. They had fun signs through out the restaurant, everyone wore capes, and they had a "No Villains Allowed" section roped off where they showed The Incredibles.  They had a bounce house for the kids and the Super Hero Cow even got in and jumped with them.
We sure do love Chick-Fil-A! They are an awesome company that really does focus on families.