Easter Sunday

Sometimes something becomes a tradition that you never really intended – the kids fully expected to wake up Sunday morning to a blockade at the top of the stairs and dozens of eggs scattered and hidden throughout the downstairs.  I couldn’t disappoint their excitement so Justin and I hid nearly 200 eggs on Saturday night and I printed up a sign to remind the kids not to go downstairs until everyone was awake.  It felt a little Christmas morning-ish.

Drew got to come down first and get a little head start.

And then Katie

Then the big kids – though they were instructed they couldn’t pick up any eggs below their knees.

A quick picture before everyone started digging in…

We had a short Easter devotional and watched a video on the importance of the atonement and resurrection of Christ before heading off to church.  We went straight to the Baumgartner’s after church for dinner and more Easter fun.

Obligatory Easter Egg Hunt

The last few years my friend Sommer has organized an Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter.  I knew she was hoping to pass the baton this year, but word didn’t go out from the new organizer until Friday afternoon and I wasn’t motivated enough on Friday to get any stuffed eggs delivered that evening so we decided to bag tradition and skip it.  However, late Friday night I had second thoughts, realizing that it is probably my parental responsibility to ensure my youngest still experience annual Easter egg hunts during there young childhood, I decided to brave the crowded community hunt Saturday morning with hundreds of others.  We’d only done this large hunt our first year here and even though our kids scored lots of candy that year, the quality of candy was so unimpressive we’ve chosen alternative hunts since then.  I’m happy to say the candy has improved and the kids had a great time.

Justin and Carly were in Seattle for Carly’s lacrosse game.  It was great to have Abigail there to help keep track of Katie and Drew as each of the kids were assigned a different area of the field for their age group.

Knowing how crowded the event gets we got there early.  Here are my hunters all ready to go – seriously, can you think of a more beautiful backdrop? 

Drew was especially excited for the hunt to begin.

Too bad the kid had to wait 20 minutes – all the while looking at all those candy filled eggs and not being allowed to touch a single one of them.

Some nice boy handed out donut holes, which Drew promptly ate entirely on his own.

Jason tried to give Drew a little coaching before hand.  It’s not all just fun and games at our house.

The hunt started a little late, as we had to wait for the Easter Bunny to arrive via fire truck.  Drew was hesitant for a nano-second when the lady with the bullhorn finally said “GO!”, but he caught on quickly and got down to egg-collecting business.

Success!

I will say I prefer hunts where there is actually a degree of hunting involved.  It’s a bit disappointing how hunts have gravitated toward just laying out a bunch of eggs in the grass.  It’s more of an egg dash than an egg hunt. 

Katie really wanted to meet the Easter Bunny so we waited in line and had our photo op with the creepy bunny with half his face smashed in.  Seriously, for as much as we pay in homeowner’s dues, you’d think we could hire a bunny in better shape.

We took a couple pictures on the fire truck before heading home (with a short donut detour to George’s Bakery – yum, yum!)

Carly Turns 12

Carly celebrated her 12th birthday on Friday, March 4.  Carly had a very full day – she went bowling during school hours as a reward to her homeroom class for earning the most money at the school carnival.  She had her piano lesson right after school and then we were off to the orthodontics to get prepped for braces.  Her appointment went a little long so she arrived a little late to her final activity days activity that afternoon.  Her leaders made a special treat to celebrate Carly’s advancement into young women’s.  We had less than two hours after all that running around to prepare for her birthday party.

Abigail was a huge help before and during the party.

Carly really, really, REALLY wanted to decorate cakes with her friends – a throwback to her last party at age 10 and just something she enjoys doing.  I dragged my heels on it for a few reasons:  not all 11-12 year olds care a lick about decorating cakes and could bore quickly, Carly has a few rambunctious friends and I could easily envision frosting wars breaking out, and preparing and baking individual cakes for a eight girls didn’t excite me.  Carly kept coming back to the cakes though so I went along with it, pleading with her beforehand to try and help me maintain control during the activity.

I saved myself some time and purchased a variety of pre-made colored frosting – probably not the most tasty, but a heck of a lot easier.  My issues with the possibility of impending chaos unfortunately had Carly policing her friends quite closely.  Thankfully, we were both able to relax and all of the girls seemed to enjoy decorating their cakes without any major incidents. 

You’d think our kids would be long over Minute to Win it games, but alas they are still a party favorite.  Abigail ran most of the games while I got some snacks ready downstairs.

Carly was very excited about her gifts.

We also played the Candy Ball game that my Mom introduced us to at our family reunion last summer.  It was a big hit!

We wrapped up the evening playing a new game dice game called 100s.  It sure got this group of girls screaming and excited – I’m sure the massive amount of sugar they ate during the evening had something to do with that as well.

The Fletcher family joined us on Sunday after church for dinner and dessert.  Having church from 1-4pm makes it hard to do much for dinner so we opted for tortilla soup since it could cook all afternoon in the crockpot.  Carly had had her fill of cake over the weekend and decided on 4-layer dessert and sugar cookie bars for her siblings with nut allergies.

Since Hannah’s birthday is only three days after Carly’s these two cousins often get to celebrate their birthdays together.

Carly’s final birthday treat was dinner with me the following weekend to redeem her free birthday burger at Red Robin – where the birthday girl got to eat my bacon.

Happy Birthday Carly!  We are so glad you are ours!

Justin in Dallas Ya’ll {February 27-March 2}

I (Justin) generally attend one travel training each year and my director asked if I would be interested in going to the Deloitte Telecom conference in Westlake, TX which is about a half hour from where I grew up in Farmers Branch.  A few things were appealing to me:  a chance to be in Dallas and reminisce, time to hang with our good friends Ben and Laura Barlow, warm weather and sunshine, good BBQ plus a shorter travel time to Dallas versus the alternative Orlando. 

I caught an early Saturday morning flight and arranged for the Barlows to pick me just past noon.  It felt great to walk out of the airport in shorts weather.  We made a beeline to Marshall's BBQ in Farmers Branch.  We were regulars there growing up and it tasted just like I remembered - brisket, sausage, cole slaw and okra.  Ben and Laura were impressed as well though the piece of okra I convinced Laura (who hates vegetables) to try was quickly spit out.

We passed Jerry's donuts, which was already closed, but I had to take a picture.  My dad still references this place and how he and I would eat most of the donuts before we ever made it home. 

A quick drive through the old neighborhood brought back memories of my childhood.  The home of my youth looked old and worn down, the roof appeared to be almost falling in, and the lawn was nearly nonexistent. 

We headed back to the Barlows home, hung out for a bit, then headed back out with the kids for dinner in Roanoke.  I was grateful Ben and Laura so willingly obliged my desire to eat BBQ.  We ate at Hard Eight BBQ where you order meat by the pound.  I ordered a monster basket of fries to go with my pound of brisket and sausage.  I came away impressed, moreso than Marshalls. 

Babe's Chicken Dinner House, another popular local joint just down the block, was packed. 

Laura picked up some oh-so-good buttermilk pie at the pie shop for later.  

Ben had a daddy daughter date so I hung out in the movie room watching episodes of Arrow, my new favorite series next to Flash.  Ben came home and we had one of the more enjoyable evenings of watching basketball in a long time.  BYU lost a close game and then we saw the end of the Warriors-Thunder game which blew me away.  So amazed at the skills of Steph Curry.  He shot lights out, 12 3s from all over tieing the record for one game and setting the NBA season record with a third of the season left to play.  Ben and I both were in awe.  I ended up watching another episode or 2 of Arrow so did not get to bed early.

Sunday we attended 8:30am church where I ran in to a couple people I knew, ate some leftover BBQ for lunch and then I took a three hour nap.  I was exhausted.  

Ben and I had a good time making breakfast for dinner.  We made the omelette roll with hash browns and pancakes.  Laura thought we were the quite the spectacle. 

We enjoyed a family walk that evening and a few more episodes of Arrow meant less sleep once again.  

Ben dropped me off at the conference the next morning on the way to work.  I really wanted to get in a good run so decided to run the 2.5 miles to Babe's.  Only two options, half a fried chicken or country fried steak, with bottomless potatoes, salad, biscuits, and corn.  I went with the steak.  Very good.

Deloitte has a really nice facility there in Westlake.  The conference rooms are well done, the hotel rooms are great, a nice fitness room, and the all-inclusive food was better than average for sure.   I got runs in again on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings which I hoped would offset some of the food I was eating.   There were a few folks from work there.  We spent both evenings playing a bit of pool and shuffleboard and made one more trip to Babe's where I had my fair share of fried chicken. The sessions were about what I would have expected.    Overall I came away impressed.  

The flight home felt much longer coming home than heading to Dallas but scoring an exit row both ways made it easier.  I am definitely glad to travel for work only once or twice a year.  The time was short so I did not end up meeting up with old-time friends but it was great to be with the Barlows again and to be in the Dallas area.