Easter 2012

This Easter was a little different for Chris and I this year since we ended up needing to spend it apart. Chris was already scheduled to be in Ohio the day after Easter and so we had planned to spend Easter in Indiana with his family.

Then my dad had open heart surgery a few weeks ago. So I decided that since I had a 3-day weekend, that I needed to go see my family and spend the time with them. This meant that Chris and I would have to split up since it would have been very tiring for him to drive 8 hours on Sunday and then drive all the way to Ohio from home on Monday.

So Chris headed to Indiana (with Maggie in tow) and I made my way down to Missouri. I left on Thursday night after work (and a haircut and finishing packing...it was a later night!) and headed to my sister's house so I could carpool down with them on Friday.

Here are the few pics I took during the weekend...

pretty sunset while driving

We took the long way down to Joplin and stopped at the outlet mall in Osage Beach on Friday. We hit up Coach, Bath and Body Works, and Fossil. (I may have made my first Coach purchase :)

We stopped for drinks (and for gas and to air up our tire) on our way out of the lake area. And I found out they have Jones soda in a can! I used to buy these all the time in high school when they came in glass bottles.

Love the pictures on them :)

We had a good weekend. Saturday was a busy day of helping our parents run errands and lifting things that they can't lift since my dad is still on a 10-lbs. weight restriction and my mom is used to my dad doing the heavy lifting. It was great to see that my dad is doing so well. (And he's even lost a little bit of weight. I'm hoping he will be able to keep it off.) We just wore him out on Saturday since we had to go to several stores in search of a new tv for their bedroom - just a lot of walking for him. And I found out that my dad's heart now sounds like a ticking watch. That was pretty interesting!

We also saw the house that they are rebuilding at the site of our old house. It's different but a similar layout to what the old one was.

We also went to Kohl's on Saturday and I got to do some birthday shopping. That was lots of fun!

Sunday was a good day. I woke up early and ran before going to the 8:00 service. But it turned out to be worth it since I got to see the sun start coming up and that's always really meaningful to me on Easter morning. Breakfast at Immanuel was good as always. My parents had a break from it (for the most part) this year, so I know they enjoyed that.

I sadly didn't get a picture of all 5 of us together but I did get these...

(in front of mom's pretty roses :)

(thanks to my sis for taking my new favorite picture of myself :)

It ended up being kind of tiring weekend and I missed not being with Chris and Maggie and Chris' family, but it was well worth it to spend the enjoyable time with my family and to be able to help my parents out while I was there. I hope you all had a great Easter as well!

Easter Weekend 2010

We had a wonderful 3-day Easter weekend.  Chris' mom, sisters, and nephew were able to come to our house for the weekend, which was really nice.  We had a full house, but it was fun.

After grilling some hamburgers for dinner, we made a visit to the Parker's house (long time friends of Chris' family that live really close to us).  There was cornhole and roasting marshmellows over a fire for smores.  It was a beautiful night to spend outside and catch up with the Parker's!

Saturday morning consisted of Chris running 13 miles, me running 12, and some yummy breakfast casserole (made by Chris).  Chris and I were both glad we were able to finish our runs before the rain came!  Then around noon we piled in the car to run some errands.  We found Chris some new work boots, found some pretty good deals at Old Navy, and picked up some last minute things for Easter lunch on Sunday.  Since it was a rainy day, we just spent the day inside.  Everyone besides me and Dominik played a game of Mexican train dominoes while I finished some things for church and watched.  (Max and Maggie took the opportunity to lay down.)  Then we ate lasagna while we watched the start of the Butler/Michigan St. final four game.  We watched basketball until it was time for bed!

Sunday brought a beautiful day to celebrate Easter!  It was kind of a crazy morning at church since both Chris and I had responsibilities that morning.  The worship was pretty awesome - all upbeat songs celebrating Jesus' resurrection!  We made it home to have Easter lunch.  We got to invite a couple from our small group (John and Stacie) since they don't have any family nearby.  So we got to have lunch with our family and friends!  Our lunch consisted of honey-glazed ham, green bean casserole, cheesy hashbrown casserole, and rolls.  It was also a good excuse to get out our china (since we've only used it once or twice before).  And I can't forget to mention the wonderful carrot cake that Stacie made.  It was so delicious!  I'm not sure I've ever been crazy about carrot cake, but she made me like it.  It had raisins inside and the icing was so good with nuts on the outside.  Even though she told us it was her first time making it, we knew it would still be good...and we were right :)

After lunch, it was time for the egg hunt!  This was really only for Dominik.  Kaitlyn did it with him, so he wasn't alone.  Chris and John hid the eggs in the backyard.  There weren't too many hiding places.  It was ironic that one of the last eggs to be found was hidden in some of our taller grass!  I think everyone had a good time both watching and participating.  'Grandma' even gave the dogs an Easter treat during the egg hunt :)

Thanks again to Chris' family for spending the weekend with us!  And thanks to John and Stacie for celebrating Easter with us too!  We hope you had a chance to celebrate Easter with your friends and family too.