Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend with family and friends. Saturday morning, we started with a pajama party at church (sorry, no pictures). There was a yummy breakfast and a lot of great activities for the kids, including marking their scriptures and making their own journals.

Saturday afternoon, we were invited to a party at the home of our friends, the Paxtons. We had a yummy lunch with different soups and breads and crackers, then the kids had an Easter egg hunt. There were nine boys and one girl, so it was a little crazy. The kids enjoyed finding Nerf toys, puzzles, games, model kits, pencils, and eggs filled with little toys and money! Not much candy – a big yea for moms (and dentists)!
Sunday, Ryan and I attended church, and also enjoyed reading some of our books and scriptures about what Easter really celebrates. I always try to keep that as our focus as much as possible on Easter Sunday.
Sunday after church, we had our family Easter dinner. My dad is the bishop of a young adult singles ward (church congregation), and there was a guy from his ward that didn’t have a place to go for Easter dinner, so he joined us. Ryan, being the only grandkid at the moment (more about this in a minute), enjoyed his less-chaotic Easter egg hunt at Rara & Papa’s. Quite a difference from Saturday’s! (And even though we won’t readily admit it, Marc & Frances & I still really like the egg hunt, too. The green eggs containing money help.) We especially enjoyed sitting around the dining room table planning our itinerary for Hawaii. I know none of you are keeping track of the countdown like I am…we go one month from today! But the greatest Easter present was Marc & Frances’ present to Rara & Papa – an ultrasound picture labeled “Baby 1” and “Baby 2.” Yep, Marc & Frances are expecting TWINS!

Oh, yes…the Easter Bunny also made a visit to our house, and we also did the traditional egg dyeing. We don’t do a lot, since only one of us eats eggs.

Even though Easter was early this year, we enjoyed mostly warmish, sunny weather for all of our activities. It was a great weekend.

Good Friday – Tabernacle Choir Easter Concert

Our family had the opportunity to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Easter concert – the production “The Redeemer” by Robert Cundick. All tickets were general admission seating, so we made sure we were at Temple Square a while before they opened the doors. We saw several people we knew in the line, and enjoyed visiting with them until we were able to go into the Tabernacle. Ryan took his new cub scout Wolf book to read while we waited.
The program was amazing. Many of you recognize Robert Cundick’s name. He was the Tabernacle organist for 27 years. He composed “The Redeemer” in a 10 WEEK period in 1977. It was fun to watch Ryan as his appreciation of music is growing. He recognized the patterns throughout the production; for example, every time the man portraying Jesus Christ sang, it started with the same melody and first few words. It was also fun to watch Ryan feel the different emotions portrayed within the program. It was obvious that he was experiencing all of the emotions that the program was designed to instill in the audience.
It was a beautiful program, and we were very lucky to be able to attend. It started our Easter weekend off perfectly.

My Favorite “Ryanism” of the Week

Ryan’s best friend, Ben, was out of school sick all week. One day in the middle of the week, Ryan told me why he hoped Ben would be back at school the next day…

“Because when Ben isn’t at school, the girls only chase me.”

I chuckled AFTER he left the room.

Cool News from Hawaii

So, really, this is my friend Kevin’s cool news. But since: 1 – so many of you know Kevin, and 2 – he is so humble that he only sent this to FOUR people, I’m taking it upon myself to spread the word. Feel free to congratulate him when you talk with him next. :)

Kevin sent me this e-mail tonight:


Aloha!

Well, I finished my big race Saturday. It was called the Run to the Sun, on Maui, and it started at sea level (the Maui Mall in Kahului) and finished 36.4 miles later at the top of Haleakala crater, 10,023 feet above sea level.

This was my first "ultra marathon," so I was a bit nervous as to how I'd do. I'd also never been to Maui before, and hadn't seen 10,000 feet since I'd lived in Colorado many years ago. My goal was to finish in 8 hours or so, and have fun.

To make a long story short, I did much better than that, and actually won the race! I finished in 5 hours 28 minutes and 38 seconds, which is the best finishing time in 13 years, they tell me. I beat the second-place finisher by 40 minutes.

http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/501531.html?nav=11

http://kaleo.info/2008/03/19/laie-man-wins-run-to-sun-ultra-marathon/

It was a wonderful experience, and I don't think I'll ever do it again. :)

Take care!

Kevin


Yea, I’m planning to go from the Maui Mall to the Haleakala Crater when we’re there next month…IN A CAR!

Good job, Kevin! That’s awesome!

Already?!

I had two “Already?” moments today.

First, Ryan’s soccer season started today. I know! Already?! It’s still only in the 40s for daytime highs, and we got a skiff of snow last night! Luckily, we had the “early” game from 5:00 to 6:00. So with the sun still up, at least we hadn’t yet dipped into the sub-zero temperatures. And it didn’t snow, which is always good. (Yes, it has before. Yes, they keep playing.)

Ryan is a great little soccer player. He was only inches away from scoring a goal…twice! Everyone kept saying that the score was 3 to 0, but ALMOST 5 to 0! He had a third attempt that was only a couple of feet away. He came so close so many times! (He is #1 and has the red cleats in the pictures.)

As soon as Ry’s soccer game ended at 6:00, we ate a quick, not-very-healthy dinner in the car, and headed for our church (on the opposite side of town). One of us changed clothes in the car, the other changed in the church bathroom. I’ll let you guess which was which.

Pack meeting was at 6:30. You all know that I am the Wolf den leader in cub scouts. For two years now, we have often rushed from Ryan’s soccer games to pack meeting. But before now, Ryan was able to just stay in his soccer uniform and hide in the back of the room during pack meeting. Not today. This was my second “Already?” moment of the day. My little bub was officially welcomed into cub scouts, and I was the one that got to do it! Since he has been attending den meetings and pack meetings with me for over two years, it was probably more of a “Finally!” moment for him. He FINALLY gets to actually receive the awards for the things he is doing. But for me, it’s hard to believe that my baby is already a cub scout. I guess that’s a fairly common mom sentiment as kids grow up.
I also realized today that maybe I don’t dislike winter as much as I thought. Wintertime for our family means quiet, relaxing weeknights at home (for the most part), dinner at home, homework done, and the little person in our house in bed on time. As much as I love it when Spring finally arrives, it also means a return to our considerably more hectic lifestyle.

On that note, I’ve got to end. MY homework calls.

The All-Green St. Patrick’s Day Meal

For the first 32 years of my life, I teased my mom about the St. Patrick’s Day meal that she presented to us every year. I know some families do corned beef and cabbage for their traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal. Being of Polish descent, corned beef and cabbage was not exactly unusual enough for the day. No, my mom did the all-green meal. And when I say “all green,” it was truly all green. It was always hilarious to me how much time she spent rounding up so many green things. (And what she couldn’t FIND green, she MADE green!)

What happened at that 32-year mark of my life? Why did I no longer tease my mother? I became a mother. I now completely understand the amusement of going up and down every aisle in the grocery store finding green items for the St. Patrick’s Day meal. I understand the entertainment of presenting my child with a plate of green food (on green plates on a green tablecloth with a green shamrock centerpiece and green shamrock napkins). I also understand that when my child says, “You have GOT to be kidding me,” what he really means is, “That’s so cool that you took the time to put this hilarious meal together. You must really love me.” To be perfectly honest, that’s what I really meant when I teased my mom, too.

Farmington Bay

Wednesday I took my cub scouts (and Ryan – not yet an official cub scout) to Farmington Bay. The last time our family was there (for Bald Eagle Day), we drove around on snow-packed roads. Wednesday was a beautiful Spring day. The snow had melted and the weather was warm.

We started with a presentation by the wildlife conservation officer, then spent some time viewing birds through binoculars and scopes from the viewing deck. We again had the opportunity to drive around the bay to view all of the birds closer to the water. We saw about a dozen different types of birds, and the boys loved it.

I took a bunch of pictures, but these are my two favorites.