Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter weekend with Lena and Mike and their family. They were on their way to a business conference and stopped here for a few days.  Thanks for coming!!!

First, here is a random picture that Haley took of herself.  I thought it was pretty fun.

 I love egg hunts at Easter time.  One was held at the park here in town. 

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, Shanna can do these all on her own.  Are they called monkey bars?  Aren't those the stationary ones though?  Not sure what to call the moving ones...

 

 

 

I love this meditation picture.

While we were at the park the kids saw the Easter bunny.  I think this is the first time they've ever met the bunny.  Shanna got her picture on the front page of the paper too.

Since we were out, we had to go to Elkton Eyecare for a tour and try on some glasses. (And raid the candy jar.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day my parents opened their mission call!  All 10 kids were present via google+ or the phone.  More on that later.

 

Saturday evening we went to a friend's house for dinner.  They invited our local church congregation (ward) to a BBQ and an egg hunt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have a fun property--great for kids!

 

 

A neighbor family here is so nice to us.  Sunday morning they left this awesome Easter bucket full of goodies for all FIVE kids! 

Lee and I somewhat dread family photos, so we don't usually do them.  I think we'll try a bit harder to snap some every Easter Sunday from now on.  Lena and her family always do family pictures on Easter, along with some of my friends. I'll join in (hopefully) next year.

After church Easter Sunday, we had a yummy meal and visited.  Later we did a spiritual egg hunt with 12 eggs.  Each egg has some sort of item in it representing what happened to Christ before and after his crucifixion.  And the 12th egg is the best--it's empty!  Christ has risen and lives today.  That is something that we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints focus on--that He lives.  He overcame death and in turn all mankind will too because of Him.  Christ is not a dead prophet, or some good man, but our living Savior who invites all of us to come to Him daily.

Monday we all went up to the Shenandoah National Park.  It's convenient that one of the park entrances is about 10 minutes from our house! It's always so pretty up there. (And when I go up there I have the recurring frustrating thought that the government would kick people out of this land--people's homes, privately owned land, to turn it into a National Park...but we still go and visit anyway.) Thanks for paying for us to get in Lena and Mike! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did the Dark Hollow Falls hike again.  Very easy for kids, and fun.

All of us!  

 

Next we went to Big Meadows, which is basically adjacent to the Dark Hollow Falls trail head area.  It's a...big meadow, with some rock outcroppings.

 

 

 

 

A forest fire had been burning for about a day, hence the smoky view. 

That evening Lena and I went to Sharp Shopper.  Can't miss a trip to that store!  Later we roasted marshmallows.  I found these HUGE marshmallows at Sharp Shopper for $0.99.  They are TOO big.  The normal-sized marshmallows work better! 

 

 

Thanks for coming to visit Mike and Lena! Hope all of you had a wonderful Easter too!