So, this is probably a bit late to hit the blog here, but I just realized that, since the whole idea behind this blog was really a place where my family could keep up with what we’re doing way out here (they’re mostly in California and Utah), I should probably post more of the mundane events for their benefit. I’ll still be posting the regular things (the random pictures, the conversations and such), but I’ll be trying to update this with some of the regular comings and goings of the family as well.
Easter was a bit of a weekend long thing for us. Friday evening we were invited to a little Easter Egg hunt that some of our friends put together. There were 4 families and their kids there, so it was a nice little get together. We met at the church Institute building in Manhattan, an old house that was added to in order to suit the needs of the Institute*. Our friends Tim and Jody had prepared a craft for the kids to work on while the adults hid the eggs in another room, and then, of course, mass pandemonium ran through the crowd when we said it was time to go look for eggs. It was all over but the gorging themselves on candy in about 3.7 seconds. I’ll have to post some pictures from the night later.
Saturday morning was frigid, but there were still eggs to be found at the Wamego City Park Easter Egg Hunt. It started at ten, which gave us plenty of time to wake up late, eat and dress in a leisurely fashion, and arrive just after they said “go!” We missed all the instructions about which sections of the park were designated for which ages, which produced no end of ill-meaning glances and comments from other parents who were, instinctively, I’m sure, worried that their 10-year olds wouldn’t get enough eggs.
All of the eggs were picked up in about 4.2 seconds. Some of them contained prizes, so we opened all our eggs (there was a 5-egg limit) and found that we didn’t win any of the Easter-related prizes on hand, but that Hyrum did win a free ice cream cone at Sonic, while Chloe picked up a coupon for a free soda at McDonald’s and a free medium pizza from Breadeaux. Hooray for free dinner!
After that, the only thing left to do was take pictures with the Easter bunnies (Mr. and Mrs.), who very strategically placed themselves right in front of the rising sun, such that anyone attempting to take a picture of their adorable kids with the bunnies (of questionable adorability) would quite likely end up with a brightly lit park background and a number of silhouettes because their fancy digital cameras probably thought there was enough available light to not warrant using the flash.
While we were there, I got a couple of pictures (including a bunny shot), but I only have one with me here at work (the rest will come later, so check back):
The rest of the day went quickly downhill from there, something I expect to post about later.
Easter Sunday was wonderful, though, which helped partially erase the memories of Saturday. We went to church, which on most other occasions would be filled with Easter-themed talks and lessons. However, because of General Conference the week before, Fast Sunday (which is typically the first Sunday of the month, when members fast, or go without food and drink for 2 meals, or about 24 hours, and donate the cost of that food to the church to use for the needy) had been moved back a week and the customary testimony meeting was held instead. Of course, many of the testimonies centered around Christ and the resurrection, and virtually all of the lessons in Sunday School were Easter themed, so we got our Easter fill all the same.
The kids opened their Easter baskets before church and Michelle spent forever curling Chloe’s hair (with results that equaled the effort put into it), so there was no time before church to take pictures of their Easter outfits. As such, I had them hang out outside with me when we got home from church around 12:30. The light was horribly bright, and I didn’t think to use fill flash, so the shadows are pretty harsh on these. All in all, they’re horrible pictures (artistically speaking), but you still get to see how cute they were.
Mind you, at this point, the kids still haven’t hunted for Easter Eggs because we wanted to wait until that evening when some friends and the missionaries were coming over for dinner. It was tough for them to wait, let me tell you.
Dinner came and went (though, again, not fast enough for the children) and then we hunted for eggs. The kids really had a blast, especially since the Easter Bunny came (again!) and hid eggs downstairs while the kids were playing upstairs. I think they managed to find all the eggs that we hid, though we didn’t hide all the eggs that we had. You see, we painted eggs on Monday night, for Family Home Evening, and those managed to stay safe and secure in our fridge the whole night.
Come to think of it, I think they’re still in there. Yikes.
And that was our Easter. The rest of the pictures will come soon (I promise…I think), but rest assured that we had a great time. Minus that whole mess of a Saturday afternoon, of course. I hope your holidays were just as wonderful.
*For the uninitiated, the church Institute program is designed to be a religious complement to the secular education available at many of the larger colleges and universities around the country. Typically, there’s a building with rooms for classes along with spaces for studying, eating, socializing, and even playing ping-pong or foosball or whatever they have available.
