Hoppin' Easter!

Wednesday (19th) The girls and I made the 2 hour drive up to Pocatello, Idaho to join Bryan and the Hanks' for grandpa Clair's funeral. The girls did great in the car thanks to our portable DVD player! The funeral was service was really nice and his burial was given by the Veterans group. We drove back home that night and had a good time hanging out with Bryan's siblings.
Saturday (22th) I ran 7 miles by myself! I surprised myself that I can run without my running partner. I was supposed to do 10 miles but I chose to come home for the kid's Easter egg hunt at the church.
Sunday (23th) I decided no Easter bunny to try to have a more Christ-centered Easter. But it only kind of worked. We had the Fosters come to church with us. Afterwards we had Easter lunch and an early Ashley birthday celebration. I made myself sick with my pathetic self-control, eating lots of candy and birthday cake.
In church the primary kids sang 3 songs and we got to watch Emily in her first sacrament meeting show. And she was the show! She started out singing and then got bored so she started leaning way over the edge. Then she started rubbing her eye really hard and then lifted up the edge of her dress to wipe her eye, the whole time talking to herself. I asked her afterwards what was going on and she said, "I had some happy tears." I was the chorister and didn't really notice what she was doing, for which I am kind of glad and kind of sad.
Monday (24th) We are in a great stage where our girls absolutely love Family Home Evening! The fact that treats are involved definitely was a smart move on the part of the church's FHE department. We also have a tradition of singing the Family Night Song (pg 195). We tried to sing it as loud as we could and Ashley just started laughing. She was just giggling and walking all around the room from person to person just soaking it all up. Then we had a short lesson, played the game of Life and had popsicles. I have to appreciate it their excitement now because I think I will need it to sustain me through the years to come.
Tuesday (25th) Today I taught my 3rd day of Joyschool for the month which means I am done teaching until May. We are learning about being unique and different. That has been a tricky concept to for the kids to understand because 5 of the 6 kids in the group are girls with blue eyes and blond/light brown hair who like similar activities. Funny.

Coming up on Thursday night is my book club. The book we read was "The President's Lady" which is a historical fiction about Andrew and Rachel Jackson. I am impressed with the genre of historical fiction (facts turned into a story with no extras added). I was saddened to learn of their love story and how it was destroyed by politics. And I was WAY glad that my turbo husband is not as turbo as Andrew Jackson- that guy was a whirlwind.
Ashley is turning 2 on Sunday. Emily has been counting down this day the whole month of March and is probably more excited about it than Ashley. We plan to have Bryan's siblings up to celebrate on Sunday and then go the zoo on Monday.
And the best countdown of all is our cruise trip coming up! Poor Bryan has been so busy with work the last few weeks. He has been holding on to the cruise as the light at the end of his tunnel. We are leaving in 8 days and will be gone a week. Hooray for vacations!