Happy Easter!

We had a lovely Easter and hope you all did too.

We have church at 9:00 am and since it was Easter the kids had to look more decent than normal so the morning was not very relaxing for us. In the morning we helped the kids wake up nice and early and make their way straight to their Easter baskets so we could get that little ritual out of the way and get the ball rolling.

The Easter Bunny was ver good to the kids again this year and nearly depleated Christmas candy stashes were once again plentifully resupplied. Aside from the usual candy, the kids each also recieved a DVD in their baskets. Sarah was given "Enchanted" and in the bunny's infinate wisdom, the Joshua was of course given "I Am Legend" a movie that will have him sleeping with lights on for the next six months. Nothing helps the kiddos get to sleep peacefully like teaching them that when it gets dark outside super-powerful zombies come out and are looking to eat you.

We expect Josh will spend the next six months sleeping in the bathtub with the dog.


With a little encouragement though we got the kids in their new Easter clothes and out the door on time to snap one quick picture and to get to church.


Church was very nice and it is always great to see the place packed on Easter. We did have a few minutes of panic when we lost Benjamin in the crowd when Sacrament Meeting let out. Valerie and I did a couple of laps around the church and still had not found him and had just started getting out the word for other parents to keep their eyes out for him as well when we found that he had followed Joshua to his primary class and was sitting with him. He is fine with primary but just try leaving him in the nursery. WAH!

In the afternoon we had a get-together with the VanderHoeven side of the family. We had a fantastic spread of breakfast foods to eat (I LOVE breakfast for dinner) and enjoyed each others company. I think there were around 20 of us there.

Of course no Easter would be complete without an Easter Egg Hunt but since there are not many little kids in this side of the family anymore we upped the stakes a bit and I put together a GPS based course for teams in vans to go through and try to complete. You go to a location, solve a clue which gives you a GPS coordinate of your next clue etc. etc. The first team to finish the course wins. We have done a few of these with the family. It is a lot of fun I think, I always plan these so I don't actually participate myself but the family does seem to have a good time.

In the evening it was time to again head home and try to clean some of the mess we had left behind in our rushes to get out the door earlier in the morning.