Easter Recap

I put my pictures in out of order so I'll do my best to tell our Easter week story the best I can...

The Last Easter egg hunt we went to actually ended up being our favorite hunt. It was at Best Buy. Elizabeth had seen a flyer at work about it so we decided to check it out. It was AWESOME!!! They had around 4000 eggs hidden throughout the entire store. When I say throughout I mean it!! They had eggs hidden in washing machines, refrigerators, computers, printers, videos, furniture, TV's, EVERYWHERE!! It was so much fun!! When we started the day Trent didn't know if he wanted to join us due to his age. He's at that wonderful age of nearly 12 and wanting to still do some things and then not wanting to do them. He was really glad he went!! They got so many eggs at Best Buy! At one point we stopped to look through the eggs to look to see if we had one of the "golden eggs". They hadn't found any. Well, I turned and right in front of me hidden behind some earphones was one of the golden marbled eggs!! We were so excited!! We actually won the movie "The Princess and the Frog". They had great prizes! We definitely left there feeling like winners!

Both of their baskets were full of candy! Notice the bags of eggs! They were handing out the bags to all the kids because there was so many eggs! I think there was only 50 - 60 kids for 4000 eggs. At one point they called all the kids back to the front of the store so they could put out more eggs! When they said GO the kids took off again! It was hilarious because some of the employees weren't finished putting the eggs out. When they saw the kids running towards them they quickly tossed their boxes of eggs out on the floor and ran to escape! They were laughing at how quick the kids were. We will be planning on going to this again next year!
We rose early Saturday morning to hit the HEB egg hunt first. Eyn works here so we had to go to it. They have some green grass on the side of the building that they had divided out by age groups. Trent was happy that he still qualified for one of the groups. They didn't get any of the "prize" eggs, but they came away with a lot of loot!

Amberly waiting for the hunt to start
Searching for the special eggs.

Amberly enjoying a moment with the Easter Bunny

The Tuesday night before Easter we were able to all go to the Ward Picnic/Easter Egg Hunt. We enjoyed being outside on such a gorgeous evening and being able to visit with wonderful friends! The egg hunt was quick and Amberly had fun doing it. The boys enjoyed the evening playing football, Frisbee, and hanging out with friends. If our youth night falls on the 5th Tuesday of the month our ward has the tradition of the Ward Picnic on that night. Its always been well attended and a lot of fun.

We had to dye Easter eggs. I guess this is an Easter Tradition we just can't forget!

Trent's masterpieceSilly Elizabeth!

Easter weekend was wonderful! It was different having General Conference on Easter. It was strange not going to church on that day, but it was wonderful listening to our Prophet and other General Authorities. The messages were truly inspiring and were amazing! We enjoyed a wonderful dinner after the last session on Sunday. I "think" everyone was pleased with their Easter baskets. The Easter bunny seemed to be in a very giving mood this year and was nice to everyone. Of course I forgot to take pictures of them.

I'm so grateful we were able to celebrate Easter together as a family. It was a wonderful weekend!

Quick Visit to the Temple

Elizabeth has been asking recently if we could make a trip to the temple before she heads back to school. So, on Good Friday Elizabeth, Trent, Amberly and I headed up there for a few hours. It was a wonderful afternoon! It was so incredibly peaceful just being on the temple grounds and the flowers were absolutely beautiful! It was the perfect day for going there!
Trent was in an interesting mood. He was quiet and very thoughtful. I kept finding him sitting just looking at the temple or at something deep in thought. We talked about how he is turning 12 next month and gets to go into the temple. He is very excited to go inside!

Together in front of the Temple

The wind had blown a lot of the flowers on the ground (no, we weren't picking the flowers!)

She "FINALLY" Did it!!

Elizabeth "FINALLY" Got This - So that she could do this -


I think she is now wondering why she didn't push to get it when she was 16!! I have absolutely LOVED having her have her license! It's AWESOME making a grocery list and handing it over to her with my credit card and off she goes to the store for me! I think she's loved the freedom it brings with it. But, I have to admit, she is avoiding any freeways (not hard here) and going the long way to avoid any... I don't blame her! Houston traffic is horrible and it scares me too! We have also decided we can't wait till Trent gets his license. He is the WORST side seat driver ever!! Even if he is sitting in the back of the van he is constantly looking up to see how fast your driving. Elizabeth has gotten to the point where she doesn't enjoy him riding with her. You better watch out Trent! When you get your license it will be pay back time!!

Orchestra Recital

Last night Trent had his first Orchestra Recital. He is currently in his first year playing the cello and he absolutely loves it! I wasn't able to go to his recital so Darin recorded it for me. It was BEAUTIFUL!! His musical ability has always simply amazed me! He began taking piano lessons when he was little from Elizabeth and then took a few more years from another teacher before deciding to try the cello. His piano skills have definitely helped him with the cello. He has actually kind of been bored with the ease of it. He is looking forward to next year in hopes of more of a challenge. I love to listen to him practice! He enjoys taking primary songs and transposing them to play. We also enjoys playing other music he received for Christmas. Now that we know that he is dedicated to playing we plan on getting him a personal tutor. It really is amazing to me how just a few months ago he didn't know anything about the cello and now he sounds so beautiful on it! I think these musical teachers they have at school work magic or something! Great Job Trent!! Trent at his recital. He looks so grown up!!

Spring Break Camping at Wolf Creek

This year for Spring Break I decided to take Eyn, Trent and Amberly and join 20 other families in our Ward and go camping. Trent heard about the camping trip from several of his friends and we were excited to join the group. We had such a great time!! I was a little apprehensive about going without Darin, but it was a bad time to take off work for him so we went without him. Elizabeth also had to work. The two of them got to enjoy time together at home.

Wolf Creek is a State Park located nearly 2 hours North of here off of Lake Livingston. It was beautiful there! Our group had all the campsites on a hill cul-de-sac. It was nice because we could just let our children run around and have fun. And fun they did have! I have never seen Amberly and Trent as dirty as they were! It was nice to be able to relax and just enjoy ourselves. The weather was chilly at night but absolutely wonderful for camping! Eyn was my fire builder. The first night Amberly and I were attempting to build a fire and he came over and saved us and built a nice one for us. Eyn put up the tent with the help of Brother Stansel. I didn't even mind having to cook. We missed Darin and Elizabeth, but it was nice knowing I could handle it myself! Everyone said I was brave to come alone, but the brave one was another father who brought his 3 little ones without his wife who was home not feeling well. HE was the brave one! He looked warn out! Eyn spent his days there playing basketball, football, or just hanging out. Trent enjoyed playing with the airsoft guns, tag, football, and hanging out with all his friends. Amberly enjoyed getting dirty! :) She enjoyed making new friends, playing games, and just having fun! I enjoyed it all! We hope we get the chance to go again next year!

(my pictures were uploaded backwards in order.. )
For some reason this mound of dirt was incredibly popular. At this time it was being used for King of the Mountain. Notice Amberly's jeans. They were filthy! She had to soak her hands in water to get all the dirt off!

Snocone break! Everyone went together to get snocones. I think Stacy told one child about going to get snocones and he zoomed off announcing Free Snocones! It was like magic! You wouldn't believe how quickly the kids came running!

Yummy Snocones!

We arrived at the snocone shack and found Trent there with some others in our group. "Oh, Hi Mom! Do you have any money for me??" Trent really enjoyed the freedom I gave him!

In line

Time to go get snocones! Some of the kids got to ride in the back of the Richards truck to go get snocones.

Amberly and Marin goofing off

As soon as Eyn got our fire going it was amazing how quickly lots of kids showed up. Brock was asking Amberly if she wanted to see his armpit. She was disgusted with the idea!

Wild Child!

Getting the fire going

Trent with a few friends

Eyn didn't want to go on the camping trip. I guess you could say I "forced" him to go. I made him take time off of work to go with us. I just really felt he needed to get away. I'm so glad I did! He didn't enjoy sleeping out, but I really do think he had fun during the days. I really appreciated his help.

Our campsite. We ended up in an overflow area, but it was great!

This flat board was really popular! They would ride down the hill right in front of our campsite on it. We only saw a few wipe outs!

Camp Redheads!

Card playing was always going on around camp. We had 8 women playing cards at this time. It's amazing what you learn about people when playing games...

More dirt playing

A few families came ready to camp in style! They had a sweet hookup so the men could watch the BYU basketball game one day and then the next day they watched A&M. Luckily both teams won so everyone was happy! I told Eyn they were watching the game and he sure got there fast! (It didn't matter who was playing!)

Amberly took her bike with us. Trent decided at the last minute not to take his and I think he really wished he would have had it. Luckily he has a sweet little sister who let him ride hers a lot. He didn't care that it was a girls bike!

Thanks for all you did to organize the trip Richards!! It was enjoyed by all of us!