Our oldest daughter and her family came to visit us for Easter. Due to distance, and the fact that her seven-year-old, Thomas, has been fighting cancer this last year, it has been quite a while since they have been able to come to Arizona to see us.
We loved spending Easter Sunday with them. We all went to church together.
The children were made to feel very welcome in primary, and they loved it! Here is my granddaughter Emily, while the primary children are singing her a welcome song.
After church, we went back to the house, where the children enjoyed playing with "grandma's" toys...
and reading "grandma's" books.
Uncle Josh read to his nieces and nephew.
Josh is a good uncle. The kids enjoyed him, and he seemed to enjoy them.
We had an Easter Egg Hunt in the green space behind our backyard...
...and the chocolate Easter eggs were really good.
Later, there were Easter Eggs to dye.
That was a lot of fun.
I have enjoyed dying Easter eggs since I was a kid myself.
There were also bird houses to paint...
...and a nearby playground to explore.
These two love to pretend. When this picture was taken, little sister was driving bigger sister to the grocery store.
They also played tag with their mom for a while, but that pretty much wore everyone out.
Another sweet part of the day were these yummy Easter cookies that a friend of mine (my visiting teacher) made specially for the grandkids.
They were as delicious as they were fun and festive!
Being with these much loved children, and their parents made our Easter very special.
Later on, I found this cute picture of the four grandchildren who didn't come to visit on Easter, but who we saw earlier in the month. I am sure I am prejudiced, but I think this is a pretty cute and happy bunch.
I also love this picture of the whole family. Seeing and being with my kids and grandkids is one of my favorite things and would love to be able to see more of all of them!
Meanwhile, back in the classroom, the school year is progressing toward its end. Here is one happy English teacher who has testing week behind her and her progress report grades posted. Only five more weeks!
Another fun favorite this week was seeing ducks in our pool. They seemed to really be enjoying themselves in our "man-made pond!"
Thought for the week - I really like this quote from C.S. Lewis and it really applies to me and my family this week as the school year winds down and we contemplate the possibility of some other major changes in our lives. Stay tuned!
Easter weekend is a wonderful time to take account of all of our blessings, and so today I join once again with Susanne of Living to Tell the Story for...
Easter
Today is a special day that we as Christians remember the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He died for us on Good Friday and then rose from the dead the following Sunday, paving the way for all of us to live again after we die. My first favorite this week is Jesus Christ and His atonement and resurrection that means death has no power. This short video tell us how Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and the Prince of Peace can give us true lasting peace.
Spring Road Trip
We took a quick spring weekend road trip earlier this month. We took Friday off and left for Utah quite early in the morning. We lost an hour due to the time change, and we had a 12-13 hour drive ahead of us.
The Arizona leg of the journey was lovely. The weather was good and the roads clear. Traffic was not too heavy.
My favorite part was the beautiful wildflowers everywhere. We have had a wet winter and that has made the desert blossom this spring.
By the time we reached Las Vegas, we knew that the forecast for winter weather as we drove north was for real.
The worst places were right outside of Cedar City, Utah...
...and just past Beaver, Utah. We did not enjoy driving in the snow and fog.
We were sure glad when the weather cleared.
Grandchildren
Our first stop in Utah was our daughter's home. We loved seeing and spending a little time with our grandchildren. They enjoyed the fun Easter Surprises we brought them.
They love crafts and the little bird houses and paints in the special Easter surprise bag were a big hit.
It was really fun watching them be so creative.
The children got into painting the bird houses and did so well.
Little Paige, who is two, loves her grandpa so much.
She didn't want to leave Charly's side the whole time we were there.
Although she didn't remember Uncle Josh as well, Paige warmed up to him. We love all eight of our grandkids and are excited that the other four grands, who live in Maryland are expected to come for a visit to Arizona in the next few days - so we will have seen all of our grandchildren this month!
General Conference
My next favorite for was the main purpose of our road trip and visit to Utah, attending the Semi-Annual General Conference of our church. There are six sessions of the conference, twice a year. The conference is broadcast over the internet, but free tickets are required to attend in person, because so many people want to go. We had tickets to one session but Josh wanted to be there in person to as many sessions as possible, so we decided to stand in the "stands-by" ticket line and see if we could get in. The stand-by line was pretty long, as this picture shows, and there were even more people behind us than in front of us.
Finally, after waiting in line for a while, we were taken into the Historic Tabernacle to wait and see if there would be room for us to get into the Conference Center where the meeting is held. The Tabernacle was built in the 1800s and is still all original, including the famous Tabernacle Organ. It is a beautiful and amazing building.
We did end up getting into the Conference Center for the Saturday Morning session of Conference.
Our seats were high up in the balcony, but it was so cool to be in the Conference Center to hear, in person, all the inspired messages of Conference.
It was so great to be at Conference with my son.
We really enjoyed the conference atmosphere and all of the inspirational messages...
...and just being together...
...for this special event.
Josh said he definitely wants to come to Conference again, maybe even in October, the next session of Conference.
Spring Flowers
I loved the beautiful spring flowers we saw in Utah. These were on Temple Square.
I really love having the four seasons and spring is my favorite! It was great being in Utah during the spring to experience the lovely flowers and blossoms everywhere.
Testing Week
Back in Arizona, it was Testing Week at school last week. My favorite thing about Testing Week is that is that is it now over. We actually have more testing Monday and Tuesday of this coming week, but no more "special testing schedules," which can ben grueling for teachers and students. Once spring testing is over, we know that the school year is almost over.
Temple Time
I always love time at the Temple. These pictures were taken when Josh and I were there together one evening last week. What a beautiful place of peace and inspiration.
New Recipes
Josh came back from Mexico loving bean and lentil soup. He found this recipe he wanted me to try, so I did. Bean soup is not my all time favorite, but this recipe was decent and I will make it again. It was very healthy too. If you are interested, you can find the recipe here.
This is not a new recipe, but a family favorite. Charly made his famous broccoli salad earlier today so I am looking forward to enjoying that this weekend. It is a labor and time intensive recipe, but oh so healthy and delicious!
I tried this one today, again at Josh's request. It is Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Casserole and the recipe is here. We had it for dinner. Excellent. Give it a try!
