Happy Easter

0404Easter

(Click the photo for our Easter pics and a short video)
We had a wonderful Easter this year. The kids woke up to a big surprise: 5 baby chicks walking around by their Easter baskets. They absolutely LOVE them. It is no exaggeration when I say that they literally ask to hold them atleast every 40 minutes. We bought the chicks after considering for several months the idea of raising hens for eggs. So don't worry that it is a passing Easter fancy. We're dedicated. And the kids are really so excited about them. It's really cute. I didn't think anything could rival a puppy for Eve, but these are certainly running a close match.
We had a fun Easter egg hunt with the Morrey's on Friday at Nana and Papa's house. Since the weather wasn't so great, the kids donned their headlamps and searched for eggs in the blacked-out basement. Even each of us "adults" got to search for a golden egg! We had a lovely traditional Easter dinner and enjoyed being together. I forgot my camera, so I'll have to beg Papa for his pictures and add them here.
The Bytheway's braved the snowy canyon to come join us at our home last night for Easter dinner as well. GeeGee and Poppa Bigelow came too (they are really Bytheway's in disguise)! I really, really enjoyed our time together last night. We had a super fun egg drop contest - we split into teams of 2 and used straws, newspaper, plastic bags, diapers, and tape to create our EPD's (Egg Protection Devices) for our raw eggs. We then went out on our upper balcony and dropped them to the cement below. Surprisingly, 5 out of the 7 eggs survived! I think this is going to have to be an Easter tradition! We also used "cascarones" (confetti-filled eggs) to have an egg toss and an egg-on-a-spoon relay race. Jon and I finished our video of Costa Rica yesterday, so we showed that, and then we had some delicious peach, lemon meringue, and blackberry pies for dessert. I love family time!
Speaking of family time, I just have to say that I really loved General Conference this weekend. It seemed to me that the overwhelming theme was family and home and teaching your children truth. I felt very blessed and can't wait til the Ensign comes out so I can read the talks again and again.