Happy Easter

Apparently I only blog about holidays, but I guess that is ok with me as I feel they are probably the best days to document. 

This year Easter was as low key as they come - the extent of all my Easter preparations was buying an Easter shirt for Mason and 12 eggs for the family egg hunt. Other than that, I didn't buy a single piece of candy, no fun Easter surprises for Cam, and not a thing for Mason. Sounds fun, right?

Actually, it was quite nice. Easter morning we woke up and I made a special breakfast, we watched "Music and the Spoken Word" and just relaxed. It seemed quite an appropriate way to spend Easter and while we may not have many more like this until our kids are grown, it was a nice way to spend the morning.

Later we went to Dodee's for the Annual Easter Party. This year it was different with Dodee gone, but I loved that so much of it felt exactly the same. Her presence was definitely missed, but she still seems to be a part of everything through her memories and traditions. We kept it pretty close to how we have always done it, and I loved that. I have the best memories of Easter at Dodee's - memories now that I am forever grateful for.

The weather couldn't have been better - right? It was just perfect to be outside and made for a comfortable evening of just being on the front lawn from the pinata, to the egg hunt, to just being together. I loved it.

We had the egg hunt and obviously Mason was less than aware of what was going on, but we gathered some eggs for him and he enjoyed exploring some new spoils (notice the adorable bunny my cousin made for him - it's super cute).

As as with any family get together, Mason got tons of love. He has started to kick up his "stranger danger," which I am less than trilled about, but he still loves his grandma.

We are working on the Grandpa thing... clearly it's a work in progress (and you should have seen how he reacted to Grandpa Clark two days earlier - you would have thought he was a monster the way Mason reacted. Obviously we have some work to do...)

And while he didn't warm up to Brooke initially (which she hates) she found a secret weapon and just bribed him into submission. (deep down I know he loves all these people, he is just going through a phase - or at least I tell myself it is just a phase - any suggestions on this front?)

This happens to be one of my favorite pictures from the whole day. I think there is something so sweet about my quiet grandpa that just seems to take in everything around him. I love this man and all that he has shown me about being a loving, devoted spouse as well as the goodness in being gentle and kind. I know that life marches on and one day we will all age and I hope to be able to have my family around like my grandparents have been able to. What a wonderful blessing to have a family and a good posterity. 

 It really was a perfect Easter. I loved being able to remember the sacrifice and gift of our Savior Jesus Christ. It's so special to have a day to celebrate the promise of eternal life - which means even more now with such a recent loss in our life. What a blessing to have the knowledge of the Gospel and to know it's teachings are true. So often every day life seems to wear down the poignancy of this that a day to remember and bring it back to focus is always needed.