Easter 2015

Happy (belated) Easter everyone! I hope yours was filled with a spirit of love and rejoicing, and some fun too. We have had a wonderful time this past weekend, so it's time for an update.

Easter festivities included, but were not limited to:

Easter crafts with friends.

CSCC Egg Hunt (lasted about 4.5 seconds)

Joe got an owie, presumably. Pause: why is he in a dragon costume, you say? Because when I told them the day for the egg hunt was finally here, he charged upstairs, shouting for his dragon costume. At least we are getting our money's worth out of it!

Face painting from our neighbors

Celebrity sighting at Driftwood Park! The Rotary Club does a great egg hunt every year for the community. Thanks RC!

 Easter morning, ready for church (outfits courtesy of Grandma)!

Wait, let me take a selfie.

After 2 hours of General Conference. They did amazing till the last ten minutes...

 I made a video of our hunting explorations. Egg hunts are not of the "seen one, seen all" category, and I love rewatching all the egg hunt videos from my youth so much. There is an exceptional one that catches in quick succession Andrea barfing chocolate all over the yard and Tim making a cavalry call right before wiping out on the patio that we all treasure in our hearts. Egg hunts: isn't it about... time?

We also were blessed to sit down to breakfast and dinner with dear friends, and Riley and Joe were completely exhausted by the time we turned in for the night. I know that all the partying is not the reason for the season, but it's still kind of magical. Our hosts for dinner did do a really lovely Easter symbols activity and scripture chase, using 12 eggs with slips of paper and symbols inside - such a good idea! They did it last year too, and if we can't join them next Easter, I'm going to do it on our own. General Conference was also a perfect addition to Easter - I haven't watched all eight hours yet, but I'm gonna. Favorite thoughts from what I did see:

• When anyone is trying to live the commandments, God sends answers - Rosemary Wixom
• Do not condemn others for the light they lack - nourish the light that they have - Uchtdorf
• We are all the prodigal son in some respect - Causse
• We are not doomed to death in an indifferent universe...Jesus stands triumphant over death although he stands on wounded feet, and extends redemption to us, although with wounded hands and wrists - Holland
• Grace unlocks the power of Heaven - Uchtdorf

I love conference.  Elder Holland's talk was my favorite, predictably. Very powerful, moving message.

And now we are all getting back to normal life - it was a cold reality for Joe that he couldn't have candy for breakfast today.

We had turkey's on our playground today! I know we aren't downtown or anything, but you still don't expect to see them in the bounds of Minneapolis! These ones were huge too!