Easter Blessings

We have visitors!

Chris' dad and step-mom have stopped in our area as part of their cross country post-retirement rv-ing adventure.  We have been having a great time doing 'touristy' stuff with them. 

Getting to spend Easter with them was a bonus.  Home is where the Air Force sends us, and it just hasn't been near enough to family that we can spend holidays with any of them very often. 

So we went to church that morning and then the mommy, grandma and kids took a drive over the Navarre bridge (an easy treat for my kids) while the daddy and grandpa headed home and when we got home, the kids saw that their baskets had been filled with fun gifts.

Lots of warm weather gifts and sweet tasting gifts.  It's fun to see our kids so excited.

And then they realized that there were more little surprises all over the yard.  This sweet girl was over the moon excited.

Our dog Chase seems to make his way into family pictures. 

The rest of our Easter was pretty relaxed with swimming in the pool as well as a walk down to our neighborhood beach.  I think I'm learning each year to be more relaxed with planning special days and as I try less to make everything perfect, it just leads itself into being a different version of perfect.  I love it.

Here's a story I never want to forget.  We were laughing hysterically at the time. 

So Gabe, age six, does not like sand.  Once he's done swimming and playing (and he's done often before everyone else), he wants no sand on him.  So while we were sitting in our beach chairs watching the other four little ones playing, we noticed Gabe walking back and forth from the water to the wooden gazebo/boardwalk that we use to get to the beach area.  We finally figured out what he was doing...trying different manuevers to get from the water to the gazebo without getting his feet sandy.  He tried walking slowly, walking on his tip toes, running, and several other ways to cross this sugary white, powdery sand.  It was so funny to watch as there was no way he could succeed.  Finally the lightbulb popped up above his head and he grabbed a bucket full of water and waited until he was on the gazebo deck and simply rinsed off his feet. 

So glad my kids can entertain. 

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So in addition to having Grandma and Grandpa (nope, we don't have any fun nicknames for grandparents in our family) over for Easter dinner, we were happy to have a set of friends over as well.  We knew them when we were both stationed in Nebraska several years ago and they are now living in Nevada.  The husband is about to go on a several month deployment overseas and had to do some training here for three weeks, so the wife brought their three kids along and joined him so they wouldn't have to spend even more time apart.  We were happy to have them share this great holiday meal with us.

By the way, those brussel sprouts on the right?  Picked from my garden that day.

Yummy carrot cake made by my personal cake decorator hubby.

Dinner followed with some more swimming with friends. 

We bookended our holiday with again pointing out the reason we can celebrate this day...as well as every other day.  I didn't take pictures, but we love the Resurrection Eggs that tell the story of Easter as you peek inside each plastic egg. 

Happy Easter!