Easter 2026

 

I do love when Easter hits earlier in the year.
Which was this year!

Hunting the eggs at Grammy's.

Holy week!
I didn't take a ton of pictures, but we did our usual activities.

I haven't done a big Passover meal with invited guests in years.
I do try to make it feel different and special than our typical dinner.

Hooray that we ALL gathered around the table this year instead of in increments!
Rusty had fresh, wet hair from the shower, but we will take it.

Moses was flirting with me all night!
This was without having drinks in him yet, lol!

Lighting our candles Easter morning

She is a vibe.

It was a General Conference kind of Eater, which I also LOVE!

We did jewel art while we listened.

I channeled Grandmother with some dainty dishes, filled with candy.

The Evans invited us over for dinner.

We stuffed our faces with the traditional feast.

Scalloped potatoes, ham, corn and rolls.

Basically a solid butter meal, YUMM!

I did a "guess the Peep flavor" game.

Stephanie put together a really fun egg hunt with a twist!

Kids waiting to be let loose outside.

Each egg that was hidden had an orange letter inside.

They would have to run to this table and put the orange letter on top of the white paper.

Once the word EASTER was complete with the orange letters, the person to put the last

letter on got to keep that prize!

So each prize had money and a treat.

Each kid got 2 prizes.

It was a hit and kept them busy for an hour!!

A Night In Jerusalem

 

The Stake combined forces and created a
Walk Through Holy Week experience. 

This type of activity was starting to "trend".

In fact, Marcies stake did it last year and that was the first I had ever heard of it.
Soon after did I learn that just about every other stake jumped on the same bandwagon!

At first I was thinking this would be much easier than creating our own wards
Easter event. But after attending my first meeting to coordinate details, I was semi
dreading it!!

I think the problem was that there was not really a leader. 
Nobody had direct details of what needed to be displayed, or how it should function.

It was all given to us to "figure out".

So many different opinions.
Some not wanting to put lots of effort into it.
Some wanting to go big or go home.

I was in the- if you are going to do, it needs to be done right, category.

Nobody wants to waste their time to look at a picture frame sitting on a table. 

Ultimately we were able to come together with a game plan.

And it ended up being AMAZING!!
SO much work, lol!

Our ward took The Triumphal Entry!
We were hanging from ladders until midnight the night before.

So much stuff we hauled in.

But I must say, I was most proud of our room:)

To top off the experience, I needed some animals.
LIVE animals.

Side note, I don't love animals. At all. 

Driving with chickens IN MY CAR is a direct 
"fulfilling my calling to the fullest" type of act.

The whole drive I was praying the cage door stayed shut!!!

I found chickens on loan to help create noise as people walked in to the church
to start their journey through Holy Week.

I made it to the church, sweating buckets that I now had to CARRY THEM OVER

and TAKE THEM OUT to put in the bigger cages by the entrance.

I couldn't touch them, so I made Jenny do it. 
Who used to have chickens at her house.

Only somehow in the process of moving one, a side door fell down

and the other chicken escaped and was hauling booty TOWARDS THE STREET!!!

UGHHHH!!

I was dying.

I couldn't lose a dang chicken that I was borrowing!!!

We had 3 people trying to corner it, but man those suckers are fast!

By my many silent prayers, Jenny was able to scoop it up and safely put it back.

However, the chicken pen wasn't high enough and they were trying to fly out.

Put a fork in me.

I had to sit and babysit these dang chickens the WHOLE night!

I did love our entrance.

The hanging ribbons were the perfect touch to lead them to the Triumphal Entry!

I created a bread and honey table for a little taste of Jerusalem. 

One of the other night we were able to secure some baby donkeys!!

They were a hit!

I about had a heart attack when they hopped up on the edge of the fence to roost.

But luckily they did not want to leave their spot once the sun went down.

In fact we basically had to rip them off the fence to get them back in their cages!!

Strangest animals, I swear.

I need to hunt down pictures for the other room, because they were done so well!

All in all, it was a success!

First TIme Skiers!

 

Another reason to be here for Spring Break was to get the girls on some skis!
They had never gone before.

Targhee was about an hours drive from the Ranch.

I wasn't seeing much snow on our drive up, and was getting nervous.

I did call the resort to make sure they were open before we left!

What do you know, we found snow!

Not the best quality, but luckily the girls don't know any different.

It legit looked and felt like mashed potatoes.

There was some major coaxing to get Della to go to ski school.
 She heard "all day" and freaked.

But luckily her teacher was the sweetest and she and Lindi were off to have a great day!

Casey was the MVP parent and went with Rusty.
Really, Rusty was sweet enough to put up with his dad who semi despises the sport, ha!

I happily kicked my feet up in the lodge with a beverage, cinnamon roll and netflix!

I snuck over to see how the girls were doing!

Didn't take long to shed the jackets.

And they both were doing SO GOOD!!

Chloe, their teacher took these pictures and sent them to me.

Ready to go to the top of the mountain!

They couldn't get enough of it.

They rode the ski lift as much as they could until it was closing time.

Once Casey and Rusty got back they showed us their skills on the bunny slopes.

Of course showing brotherly love by tossing snowballs at them.

It was a good day sloshing on the slopes!

Targhee is in Driggs, Idaho.

This cracked me up.

Square ice cream on the drive home hit the spot.

Not So Cold Spring Break

I really wanted to catch good snow in Wyoming over the winter,
but it never happened.

It was a warmer than normal year for everyone, it seems.

We had a window during our Spring Break to head up there and see if we could find any!

Or at least let us wear our "cold" clothes without sweating in them!

We need not be tourists anymore as we get to visit often having our house here.

It is nice feeling like it is a place to chill and actually relax!

We hung out at my parents house so the boys could watch the USA baseball game.

Bare feet on the tramp was a telling sign of how the weather was going... 

The girls and I don't understand the hype, so we ditched them for the hot tub

and beautiful cotton candy skies!

The snow glowing on the mountain under the moonlight.

We had lazy morning then explored Afton.

Della had heard about the bookstore cat from the Figueroa's.

Oh the anticipation!
It didn't disappoint! 

My main purpose in Afton was to secure the new tank top garments
that have been sold out!

So happy I thought to check if the small towns would have a distribution center!

Mission completed!

We bowled

I learned that my kids CAN have fun with just each other!

My most favorite picture of the whole trip.

I swear they look like twins.

It was fun seeing some gravitation between them.
They are more in the same boat as far as life goes than ever before. 

Lindi and Della are tied at the hip, and most likely always will be.

But Lindi is in Jr. High and I can sense she is wanting more connections with older kids.

I hope this will spark more bonding moments.

He was brave to let her drive him back, especially while he was turned around!

Lindi's actual birthday was while we were up there.

I forgot birthday candles, so a scented decorative candle it was!

The OJ in the wine glass came in clutch to make it seem fancier than normal.

We spent the day in Jackson Hole.

We got super lucky to get the LAST "sled" ride out the the elk refuge 

before they migrated permanently until next winter! 

Our driver said most likely there would be no elk the next day.

They be fast!

And don't let our jackets and sweaters fool you.

We were roasting in them!

But that is all we brought, silly us!

Normally this time of year it is covered in snow!

We got brown, mushy mud.

The extent of the snow in Jackon!

I love the collection of antler arch pictures I'm getting!

Finally, what she was looking forward to the most.

Birthday SHOPPING!

Lucky her, Jackson Hole TJMAX is superior.

I love to see him actually relax.

Gem art to the girls heart content!

If we were home they would never do this, they would be too distracted.

This place really is so healing. I love it so much.