Easter In Oregon

We were able to spend Easter with family for the first time in a long time this year! It was such a blessing to get to see family and have time to chat face to face and watch the cousins playing together.

It was very hard to leave and our little ones are already asking when do we get to go back to Papa and Nana's house :-)

The kids did so good on the drive to and from... Harrison had a bit of a hard time. He is too much like his mommy and likes to sleep on him tummy and being stuck in a car seat makes that a little difficult :-) So even though quite a few hours of drive time each way were when all the little ones were asleep he kept waking up and trying to get comfortable (poor guy).

Our first day there we were actually able to drive up to Washington and visit our friends that have a new little 2 1/2 wk old and of course since I was hogging the baby I got no pictures... I was busy with a baby in my arms :-)

There is something about visiting our friends in Washington... just being in their home is so peaceful... and that is really something when you realize we had 9 children inside on a rainy day for the 4 hrs we were there :-) and yes... I would still describe their home as peaceful. We are so blessed by them... thank you Craig and Ericka we can't wait to see you and your little ones again soon hopefully!

Saturday we took our little ones to their first official egg hunt - we hunt eggs at home each year but we've never gone to an organized egg hunt. And in typical Oregon fashion we got rained on ;-) the kids handled it better than I did! They were amazing. Those little ones made me so thankful for all the hard work Nathan and I have put into training them too! It was absolute chaos at the egg hunt :-) I took Emma to the 2-3 year old section while Uncle Kevin took the two older ones to their respective area and Nathan tried to keep Harrison out of the rain. Emma's section had parents that were telling their little ones "be aggressive" and more parents on the egg field than little ones. I also found out from Colin that the big kids in his area were pushing and shoving and running around like crazy. The funny thing about it all was the eggs weren't hidden at all and there were PLENTY of eggs for everyone. The Lord is so faithful though... Colin wasn't complaining about the other kids... it was said more as if he were shocked at their behaviour.

I was able to get a picture of Emma before the hunt or rain began :-)

After the egg hunt was over though someone that was working the event walked by and saw all of our kids baskets and said.. hey now ooops.. it doesn't look as if you got very many eggs... here you go and she POURED their baskets full of candy. I was so thankful the Lord rewarded them for their polite behaviour and they still received more than if they would have filled their baskets with eggs :-)

We then were able to have lunch with my mom for a bit and visit with her a little.

Then off to the Spruce Goose Air Museum with Papa and cousins :-) a trip to Oregon is never complete without a trip to the air museum with Papa for our airplane fanatic boys (and girl).

They had this fun game where you were flying on some sort of hover machine and it moved as you did... here is Papa having fun on it.

They also have this fun ride that all the kids except Harrison got to ride on.. the sweet girls stuck together the whole day!

When we were walking into the museum I asked Aiyana to hold Emma's hand... they held hands the WHOLE time they were in the museum... it was so sweet! Here are all 6 cousins playing together... this museum has just the right balance of educational exhibits as well has hands on displays.

Note... Aiyana and Emma :-)

They also have a fun play area for the littlest ones :-)

Followed by egg dying by Aunt Heather... she is so amazing with projects with the kids... remember the ginger bread houses at Christmas... it was all her!

Sunday was a relaxing day at Papa and Nana's house enjoying sweet fellowship with family, nice food, time spent listening to Papa help us to think on the blessing of what we were celebrating on Easter Day!

Monday we were able to stop by and visit my mom once more just quickly (there is just never enough time to spend with family is there...) before we had to hit the road and head back to Idaho.

The drive out and back gave us some beautiful views... the weather was amazing it changed so fast from one place to another... we had rain, snow, hail, sun, beautiful cloud formations... I really wanted to stop and take some pictures but didn't want to make the kids have to sit in the truck any longer than they were going to have to. It was a beautiful drive though, such a blessing.