Easter Sunday and a Visit to Laguna Beach

We left early Saturday morning to drive straight through to Anaheim, California, and thus kicked off our spring break with a family vacation to Disneyland.  Our travel plans allowed us a night of recuperation from the lengthy drive.  We were rested and enjoyed spending Easter morning attending church at a ward building that was located near our hotel.  Following the Sacrament service, we took some family pictures before returning to our room.
 

We wouldn't be entering the parks until the following day, so we spent some time in the afternoon in Downtown Disney.  Can you guess who picked the restaurant (ESPN Zone) that we ate lunch at?
   

Later that evening, we decided to take the children to Laguna Beach to catch the low tide and hopefully explore some sea life.  The idea was that the beach activity would serve as a suitable replacement for an egg hunt.  The tide forecasted was not anything spectacular, but we did manage to wade a bit around some shallow tide pools.  The children were just as mesmerized by the ebb and flow of the ocean waves, the squishy sand beneath their feet, and the salty, crisp air that carried a number of seagulls in flight. It turned out to be the simplest of things that made the visit an overall success, I guess.   

This was my first time to Laguna Beach, and I found the beach and surrounding parks and city to be quite lovely, and not overly crowded.  We found a place to sit and enjoy a picnic-style dinner before we piled back in our car to head on our way.

Jason planned to drive to the Newport Beach Temple grounds for a final stop during our evening.  We arrived just as the sun was setting and casting a soft, warm light on the building.

I couldn't think of a better way to end an unforgettable Easter Sunday.

This post authored by Amber

Eggs-tra! Egggs-tra! Read All About It!

Coloring the Eggs

Even though we were planning to be in California over the Easter holiday, we decided to make the most of decorating eggs and participating in egg hunts before we left for the "golden coast."  Jason picked up a number of egg dyeing kits that boasted results of speckled eggs and swirly, glittered eggs.  The colors (and processes) were much less exciting than the boxes indicated.  We decided that for next year (and always), it's best to just stick to the plain-old, standard egg dyeing kits.  They produce such vibrant, picture-worthy eggs.  Oh well.  We all still enjoyed eating the three dozen semi-speckled/semi-swirly glittered, pastel hard-boiled eggs.

This next sequence of pictures makes me smile:

It appears that waiting for the eggs to take their color was a miserable ordeal for Ella.  It's funny.  Garrett responded almost the exact way when we've colored eggs in the past.
 

Hunting for the Eggs 

We were fortunate that Nu Skin held a company egg hunt for all the employees' children up to age seven.  On the location of the warehouse grounds, the field was divided into separate areas for individual age groups.  Ella was assisted by Brevin, while Spencer tried to keep up with and help Garrett.  Jason and I worked the field taking video footage and snapshots.  Garrett and Ella each came away from the event with more candy, salt water taffy, and toys than was necessary, but they had a fun time collecting it all.

This post authored by Amber

'Cause All We Need Is More Candy At Our House!

We enjoyed what moments of sporadic, pleasant weather during the first week in April to hunt Easter eggs on two occasions. 

The first opportunity came courtesy of Nuskin, who provides an egg hunt for the young children of all their employees every year.  Jason was at Augusta National Golf course at the time (maybe I'll convince him to blog about it), so I was on my own trying to maneuver three children between three separate, designated areas, all the while trying to capture images on video and camera.  I have discovered I am not an effective multi-tasker, so I missed most of the action shot opportunities, but I did get the children all together at the end to at least pose for a few decent pictures.

 When Jason returned from his trip, he suggested we take advantage of the community egg hunt sponsored by the city's recreation department.  Even with the extra adult support and supervision, I still missed most of the action shot opportunities.  Oh well.  My children are quite used to being gathered at the end of an event to have their pictures taken.

Now what am I to do with the bag fulls of salt water taffy we've recently acquired?

This post authored by Amber

The Month that Was April

 While it sits among the list of shorter months, we were still able to stuff April with enough celebrating, tradition keeping, and vacationing to make the past thirty days seem to burst at the seams with excitement.  And while I did not spread out the blog posts into manageable, consistent musings, I decided it would be a bit much to try and write a post for each event retrospectively, so I've resorted to a picture summary of all that took place with brief descriptions (because Heaven forbid if no one in cyberspace knew of all that we do in the Park household!).

And now, for your viewing pleasure, THE MONTH THAT WAS APRIL:

We thought the last of major storms were over and felt it safe to set the trampoline up.  It was a bit premature because a huge snowstorm dumped on General Conference weekend (and there were several smaller snowstorms to follow). Gotta love Spring in Utah.

Parents were invited to a RAD Kids demonstration to show what the students had learned during the past year in the program. I'm so glad that Brevin was able to participate in the personal empowerment program. And nobody better be messing with my kid!

We made a near week-long trip to St. George for Spring Break.  We had a wonderful time with the Olson family who invited us to join them in their parent's home.  We did a lot of hiking, visiting with family, and soaking in the practically perfect weather.  It was fabulous!

 Jason was gracious enough to share his birthday candle blowing with Garrett.  He also shared his special day with a Cub Scout Pack Meeting that was unexpectedly given to my charge on the Friday we returned from our trip.  Because the Pack Meeting was on Tuesday, we celebrated Jason's birthday the day before with dinner at Joe Banditos and angel food cake.  Thanks for being such an angel, Jason, and working with me on that one!

Ella at Three Months:

This girl is "all girl" and not because we constantly dress her in pink and frills (because she doesn't have much of a choice in that).  It is because she likes to talk.  She also loves to be talked to.  And don't think about leaving  her in a room all alone, because she knows when she's alone and she will protest with emotionally charged cries.  I'm telling you, it is a different cry than anything my boys ever did, and good gravy!  It's pathetic!  Thank goodness she is a relatively content child.  Ella's smiles make up for her cries anytime, and she is also doing that a lot more now as well, so phew!  

NuSkin holds an Easter-egg hunt for children of employees every year.  Brevin is no longer eligible to participate so we had him assist Garrett in collecting eggs while Jason and I ran between two areas of the field with cameras, trying to get equal shots of Garrett and Spencer. And yes, they "cleaned house" (too bad not literally).

Everyone had a fun time coloring the 3 dozen Easter-eggs that I hard-boiled......well, maybe not everyone.  (Actually, Garrett had a blast, too.  Every so often he would make this face, though, as he waited for his eggs to color.  It was hilarious.)

The Easter Bunny came, and Ella won the prize for healthiest goodies.  Her eggs were empty and she got rice cereal.  It's nice when your kids don't care what they get, isn't it?

And finally, what would Easter be without all the Park grand kids posing together before being released to hunt for their eggs.  Garrett was searching for orange, Spencer for sports-themed, and Brevin for Spiderman eggs.  All eggs were located and so it was off inside for a scrumptious potluck meal before the rainstorm moved in.  Gotta love Spring in Utah!   

This post authored by Amber

Enjoying Easter

One of the mothers in our ward organized an egg hunt for the preschool-aged children. It was held at the nearby park, and it was very well attended, as you can see:

The egg hunt at Jason's work happened to be scheduled on the stormiest day of the week, so it was moved inside rather than cancelled. The children all filed past boxes full of eggs and were allowed to select a few:


We colored eggs first thing on Saturday morning. Every year I vow to hard boil more eggs next year, and every year I forget and do the same amount (18). The coloring process takes less time than it does to get setup, but at least we didn't have to clean up a spill this year:

Easter Sunday arrived with children eager to see what the Easter bunny had left. Once their curiosity was satisfied, they excitedly requested bunny-shaped pancakes for breakfast. I made flowers and eggs as well, and the boys decorated them with chocolate chips:

Between sessions of General Conference, we had a lunch with foods typical of what the Savior might have eaten in Jerusalem:

We rounded up the evening with a gathering at Grandma and Grandpa Park's home for yet another indoor egg hunt. Needless to say, we now have a house full of candy:

This post authored by Amber