Easter in Moses Lake

None of us were looking forward to getting in the car for another trip, but there was no way we were going to miss out on our last adventure before Aaron started his job.

We headed up to WA on Thursday after Aaron finished up some court stuff in the morning. It took a little bit longer than he expected, and he even skipped going to the gym because he knew I was so anxious to get up there. We drove to Pasco and spent the afternoon/evening at Jared and Lindsay's house. Lindsay cooked us an absolutely amazing dinner (this is where I knew there was no hope for diet this weekend)! Elsie even ate some of it, and she's picky as can be. Angie and Qiana drove down to meet us there as well. The weather was really nice that day, so Elsie spent quite a bit of time in the backyard with Kaiya. It is so nice to see them finally starting to play together. Elsie's finally getting old enough to provide some company. Before it got too late, we drove up to ML. Aaron passed a big group of cars on the highway at a very fast speed (tsk tsk) and got pulled over. However, it turned out the cop pulled us over because our taillights were out. Phew!!

Friday was a nice, relaxing day. Aaron and I did go to the high school track and ran...well, I ran/walked. I guess I can feel better about the toast/jam we had we when got back, right?! We played a game, went out to Dana's for lunch, Aaron and Elsie took the longest nap ever that afternoon, and I got to go to Wal-Mart with Angie. A trip to ML isn't complete without a stop at Wal-Mart!

I had to get a picture of Elsie playing on the organ at Grandma's. We all used to love playing it...all the different sounds in could make and the different beats. I wonder how many little hands have touched that thing over the years?!

That night we went out to eat at Inca's. When we got home Grandma wanted to show us the video from Grandpa's 80th birthday celebration. It was very entertaining for a variety of reasons....getting to see my mom as the host of the evening, seeing cute grandpa's reaction to our presentations...and seeing how fat my face was and how horrible my hair was and how cheesy Aaron and I were together. To make me feel a little better, I must mention that Lindsay's face also looked a little larger than it does now. It must be that our face shape has changed because I know I've weighed a lot more than I did then. Plus, Jared couldn't keep his hands off Lindsay and they kept making googly eyes at each other. Even cheesier! Anyway, we all got a good laugh besides the fact that it was really neat to remember that evening.

Elsie kept herself entertained by rocking back and forth in the chair with Kaiya.

...And by running around the room.

...And by hugging and kissing Qiana.

Jared (who loves to be cheesy) and Kaiya snuggling on the couch.

Saturday morning we had an Easter egg hunt in Grandma's yard. Ryan brought his kids over (and Tom and Gail came to watch the fun) to join us. We made the boys go in the back while the little girls got to find eggs in the front. Elsie was totally into this year. Her basket was kind of big (not great planning on my part) but she insisted on carrying it herself while she found the eggs. It's no big surprise that she didn't even care about the candy in the eggs. She has more will power than I do, that's for sure.

Aaron tried to get a picture of Elsie and Kaiya together, but, no, Elsie didn't have time to stop for a picture. She had better things to do. Good girl, Kaiya.

Cute picture of Elsie holding hands with Carson. Too bad she refused to look at the camera.

Nearly every picture Aaron took shows Elsie's tongue sticking out. Her concentration face!

We probably should've dyed easter eggs before Saturday night, but that was the only time that worked. Besides one little spill of a cup of dye, it was pretty fun. Aaron always gets into dying eggs and helped Elsie make one the way she wanted it...purple and orange.

Don't you love Carson's face in this picture?

We didn't really talk a whole lot about the Easter Bunny coming to fill Elsie's basket, so she was really surprised to see her basket full of goodies. The Easter Bunny filled it mostly with little toys, so she was very happy.

We had to get to 8:30 a.m. church that day, so we were pretty rushed in the morning. Elsie threw one of her best tantrums ever, so we didn't even think to get a picture of her in her dress. She did look cute! We ended our visit with a wonderful lunch of german pancakes (my choice) that Angie made for us. What a great weekend. We loved visiting, letting the kids play together, planning the family reunion...it was just really nice!

(Notice there are no pictures of me. I have asked Aaron a bunch of times to try to get more pictures of me when he's in charge of the camera. Usually I'm the one taking pictures. Well, the two pictures he got of me during the Easter egg hunt were of me stuffing candy in my mouth and bending over to pick up an egg for Elsie...neither one was the least bit flattering. Thanks, Aaron!)