Easter Egg Hunt

Our kids got to have a really fun Easter Egg Hunt sunday after Easter Dinner at Grandma Calls House. Kyle, Emily, and Shandi hid Easter eggs all over the backyard. Our kids had a lot of fun running around the backyard finding easter eggs. Calee was especially fun to watch. She would squeal and get so excited everytime she would find an easter egg. After they were done, they got to sit and open each egg and see what was inside. Some of them had candy, some had money, and some had prize tickets.

This is Calee getting ready to go outside and start Easter Egg hunting

Playdough Creations

One of our kids' favorite things to do lately is play with playdough. Anyone that knows Christy and I really well, knows that we hate playdough. It is messy and it always ends up all over the place on our table and carpet. We have never really bought it for them because we have never wanted to deal with the mess.Well, "The Easter Bunny" got some wild idea to buy our kids all different colors of playdough and a playdough toy set that they can use to make all different kinds of shapes. Well, it was a hit! Our kids played playdough together for most of the morning and every day since then. Yes, it is messy, but our kids are having fun, and they are pretty good to clean up after themselves.

Carter's cool playdough car

Cambree's playdough man

Easter Morning!

Our kids were so excited for the Easter Bunny this year. Carter was up bright and early going to the bathroom and announcing that the Easter Bunny had come. We made him go back to bed for a little while longer until the girls were awake. It is always fun to watch them get so excited when they see what the Easter Bunny brought them. Calee was especially fun to watch this year. She was squealing in excitement when she saw all the stuff in her Easter Basket. We tried to teach our kids the true meaning of Easter and why we celebrate it. Easter is harder for kids to understand. They understand that we celebrate Christmas because Jesus was born. It is harder for them to understand that Easter is about Jesus dying and being resurrected. It was fun having Easter and general conference on the same weekend. It was nice to stay home, relax, and watch conference. Our kids loved watching the neat stories about other countries that were shown between conference sessions.

Coloring Easter Eggs

Saturday Night the kids got to go up to Grandma "Pebbles" house and dye Easter Eggs. They love to dye Easter Eggs, and my mom is always so patient to help them. She had 2 dozen eggs, all hard-boiled and ready for them to decorate. They made a lot of really neat, colorful eggs this year. They also kept dropping them and cracking them, but they had tons of fun

Hiking with the Leathers Family

Saturday, after our Reunion, we hooked up with the Leathers Family and showed them our new favorite hiking spot at St. George. Our kids had a blast together. We had a blast hiking all over the place and taking pictures of our kids. After we were done, we all went out to dinner at Pizza Hut. It was a fun night, and I am glad that we got to spend some time together and get re-acquainted.

This was one of our kids' favorite spots. It looked like a hot tub carved in the rocks.

The Leathers Family

The coolest park ever

Saturday afternoon, after the lunch at President & Sister Orton's house, we all drove to a really fun park not too far from their house. This park was amazing. It had all kinds of cool stuff for the kids. Rock walls to climb, suspension bridges, lots of slides, and cool things we had never seen before. Our kids had a blast playing with all the other kids that were at the reunion. We also got hang out with the Leathers Family. Nathan Leathers was one of my companions and one of my best buds in the mission. It was so good to see him.

Mission Reunion

What an amazing mission reunion weekend in St. George. My mission President, President Orton and his wife Sister Orton are President and Matron of the St. George temple. Friday night we had the opportunity of going through a temple session with them and a small group of other return missionaries that served in Romania. Christy and I were asked to be the witness couple which was really neat. We also got a special tour from President Orton. What an amazing experience. One that I will never forget, and it gives me chills just writing about it. I never knew the St. George Temple was so beautiful and so amazing.  

This was a banner that President and Sister Orton had made that was hanging out front of their home Saturday for our reunion. It is a Romanian Sheep herder holding a copy of the Book of Mormon in Romanian.

This is the view of the temple from President and Sister Orton's Front yard. They have a very nice home and beautiful back yard where we had really nice catered lunch on Saturday.

This is Calee playing in President and Sister Orton's backyard.

Hiking Slot Canyons in St. George

Friday afternoon, a friend of mine that I served with in Romania, Sister Young, took us to a really neat hiking place with a really cool slot canyon and all other kinds of cool rocks and ledges. Her kids and our kids are the same ages, and they had a blast together. We had fun hiking and taking pictures of the kids. The slot canyon was awesome. Carter and his new friend, John squeezed through and hiked it all the way up. The rest of us watched from down below. I was proud of him for being so brave. It was a lot of fun, and the view of St. George and the St. George temple from up there on the rocks was incredible.