Easter weekend

The Easter bunny left beach stuff - boogie boards, towels, hats, sand toys, ring stix, snacks and candy.  Weston actually ate the Smarties - the Easter bunny knows him well!  Savannah was lucky and also got a pair of sandals.  She already had them on by the time we took a picture!

It's funny how those towels and toys turned into weapons and capes... we lost the ring and one of the ring stix before they even played with them the right way.

Nathan informed me he was "too old for coloring Easter eggs" this year.  The rest of them had fun making a mess.

I didn't realize we had a breakfast tradition for Easter (or conference weekend?), but apparently it's crumb cake.  I must have made it the past couple of years, and the boys were looking forward to eating it again.  I was happy to comply with the request and happy that we have another Easter tradition.

I made scalloped potatoes, rolls, peas, and roast for dinner.  I was reminded why I don't do potatoes very often - they're a lot of work to make!  The crockpot roast was delicious!  We went all out with a "fancy" dinner by actually putting all the food on the table and serving from there... ha ha.  (Maybe some day we'll own fancy plates, but the plastic ones work for now.)

The kids decorated sugar cookies... well, most of them did.  Weston just wanted to eat the frosting out of the bowl.  He finally did put some on the cookie, but he never ate it.  He had to have "pink piggy frosting", of course!

General Conference, the broadcast from Salt Lake City, was on Easter weekend.  We enjoyed watching and listening to the messages from home.  A highlight was seeing my brother-in-law singing in the choir of the priesthood session.  Sam is the handsome guy with red hair and glasses on the right side of the second picture.  (I hope I'm not breaking a copyright law or anything - this is a snapshot of the I-pad screen.)  I particularly enjoyed the last song "Master the Tempest is Raging".   Sam can be spotted in that one at the 2:54 mark.  His close-up is at the 4:55 mark of "On This Day of Joy and Gladness."

One of my favorite conference talks of the conference was Elder Holland's talk on the Atonement.  He shared a great story of a boy pulling his brother to safety, and he compared it to how the Savior reaches out and pulls us to safety.

"My beloved brothers and sisters, today is Easter Sunday. Although we should always remember (we promise in our weekly sacramental prayers that we will), nevertheless this is the most sacred day of the year for special remembrance of brotherly hands and determined arms that reached into the abyss of death to save us from our fallings and our failings, from our sorrows and our sins. Against the background of this story reported by John and Jimmy’s family, I express my gratitude for the Atonement and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and acknowledge events in the divine plan of God that led up to and give meaning to “the love Jesus offers [us].”

Here is the link to the entire conference.  Click "Show music" if you want to listen to the choir.  It's amazing!