Wedding Bells, SURPRISE and lake days

Jefferson and Katie were getting hitched!
Such an exciting time.

We got a new sister in law, plus a new nephew/cousin, Bentley!

Girl party on the couch waiting for things to get going at the wedding rehearsal.

It was windy and chilly so I was glad I brought along my obnoxious fur coat:)

No pictures but dinner at the Olive Mill followed the rehearsal.

On the wedding day I looked over to see Jael being the nice aunt and reading these girls
a story to keep them occupied!

My parents walking Jefferson down the isle.

Cutest flower girls.

The family, minus Craig!
He is the last one to get married.

They didn't leave the dance floor the entire night!

Since Christopher was in town for 2 weeks, we had fun getting together and
playing with our Utah cousins we don't get to see very often!

Christopher treated the boys to some Higley Hot Dogs.

 Unfortunately, that was about all the fun we could have.
Barf-ageddon was blazing through the families like the plague.
Each morning we would wake up to a group text wondering who had made it through

the night, and who hadn't. 

My dad turned 60 amidst all the wedding hoopla. 

The adults met up for brunch at First Watch.

He had some sun peaking through the umbrella,
 so I helped him out with my sunglasses. 

That night we had a surprise party planned for him.

My parents made a promise to never throw surprise parties for each other,
so it was just us married siblings.
Originally it was supposed to be at my parents house, but there were sick kids over there.

We moved it to our house which helped keep it a surprise!

My mom told him they would just go out to dinner of his choice that night.

He said sure.
On the way they needed to drop off this special tea to our house because Lindi fell next
victim of the barfing (wink, wink) and this would help kick it faster.

He took bait and when they pulled up we had everyone hiding.

Only just my mom walked in.

He assumed she would drop it off and be on their way, so he stayed in the car!

Plan B.

We didn't have a plan B!
With not many options, the only thing we could think of was to go back and tell him Casey
needed help  giving Lindi a blessing, ha!
He couldn't say no to that!

It worked and sure enough, after some confusion, he caught on that nobody

was sick and it was a "party" for him!

SURPRISE!!

We grilled steaks and each of us brought some sides to go with it.
We had baked potatoes, wedge salad, rolls, and the YUMMIEST roasted brussels sprouts 
straight from Stephanie's garden. 

Dessert was some iconic Cathy's Rum Cake!

We played some question games that involved my dad and his answers
matching the ones we wrote down that we thought he would say.

And then David and Abbey got a text from their babysitter saying Cohen had thrown up.
Dropping like flies!!!

And for an extra birthday treat, my parents woke up sick as dogs the next morning.
Glad they were healthy the night before so we could celebrate him!

Somehow, someway we were the ONLY family to dodge the barfs completely. 
We were exposed many times without knowing it, but we came out victorious!

And so glad, because we heard it was a bad one to catch.

We celebrated at the lake for our first time on the new boat together!

 

We are all in love with our new lake life.

Holy Week + Easter

I always get a kick out of food displays that look like a person, place or a thing!

If I tried creating this, it would have been an epic fail.

It adorned Grammy's Easter buffet table perfectly for her party.

A highlight are the kids scrambling to collect as many eggs as they can.

Checking out their spoils.

If you thought the kids were ruthless, watch out for the adults!
Tied together and on a mission for some golden eggs stuffed

with some greens!

The golden eggs are a real "treat"!

This was our 3rd year for celebrating Holy Week.
Each time it tends to go differently, but at the end I sit back and
think, it was worth it!
The kids start to anticipate the daily events and ask what night are we
making lamps, or counting our coins or going to the cemetery.

They are remembering!!
Hopefully they start to remember the accounts of Jesus more than our activities,
but it will take some time. 

Last year we had all the time in the world.
Because, well, the world had shut down!

We had to combine quite a few night together to make it work with 
practices and church activities. 

Which honestly, it is good to simplify sometimes.

Each night I write 4 scripture verses down and put them in Easter eggs with 
a piece of candy. 
I hide them around the house for the kids to find.
They think its the greatest thing and go running wild trying to find their egg.
It's a good starter and gets them excited to start our lesson each day!

We read the verses then discuss what they mean and what happened each day leading

to Jesus' final days, Crucifixion and Resurrection. 

Waving our palm leaves on Palm Sunday.

Lane had to leave to his presidency meeting.

He was super sad to miss out on the donkey rides, wink wink.

We built sugar cube temples after discussing Jesus cleansing
 the temple then went about teaching.

Casey either looks unamused, or silently critiquing our inability
 to build a quality structure!

We invited the Goodman's over for our Passover dinner!
I am glad that it worked out to have them since Grammy did her party
earlier in the month.

Valerie, haha!

She was trying the lamb. 

It's an acquired taste:)

10 plague candies.
I found the best gummies that look like real boils!!

Claire was our Pharaoh, and Randon was Moses.

Let My People GO!

Go Moses, go Moses.

After we read the book about Passover and correlated the Last Supper to Holy Week,

each person got to make their own oil lamps to take home!

Each family got a Resurrection roll kit to make Easter morning. 

I copied this idea from Stephanie.

She has all of the best ideas!

The Easter Bunny came amidst  all of the Passover hangover!

Love the filled poster.

 We were scheduled to eat Sunday dinner with my family.

Unfortunately, there was a massive stomach bug
going around, so it got cancelled. 

It was a quiet evening with Grammy as our guest.
 Ham, scalloped potatoes,
rolls, salad, carrot cake and the game Clue as our entertainment!