2015 Easter Weekend Recap

HAPPY EASTER! He is Risen! And you better believe we partied hard. On Thursday evening, we packed up the car with suitcases, a guitar, flowers for family and hit the road on our usual tour de force to celebrate the holiday with each of our families. Here is a whirlwind recap of who we saw, what we did, and all the (many) things we ate. Ready?

I’ll take your silence as a resounding YES. Ok, let’s rock and roll…

As I said, we headed out on Thursday evening after we both got home from work, had some dinner, worked out the kinks in our monthly budget, went through our leaving-the-house-for-the-weekend checklist, and packed everything into the car. After stopping to fill up the gas tank, we nearly flew (all the while observing appropriate speed requirements and traffic laws) to Delaware and made it to Mitch’s dad’s house in record time.

We’ve found the sweet spot for this trip- instead of leaving as soon as possible and getting stuck in rush hour traffic, we now aim to leave somewhere in the 6:30-7:30 time frame (hence all the pre-trip activities we enjoyed before leaving). We have found that we hit virtually NO traffic that way and sometimes make it there at the same time we would have, had we left an hour earlier.

We spent that night catching up with family and watching some of the late night shows before heading to bed. We were all pretty tired, so it was nice to just relax and hang out. The next morning, Mitch and I woke up and went for a run, first thing (chipping away at Goal #8!). My problem is that if I don’t do it right away while the thought and motivation is fresh in my mind, I won’t do it at all. So before we could mosey downstairs and dive into a cozy Friday of breakfast and egg dying, we laced up the sneaks and went for a run. I hate running. But the feeling afterward and for the rest of the day- you know, like you’ve accomplished something- almost makes it worth it. Almost.

PS. Remember Goal #3? Well, Mitch went out and got us some heavy artillery for that one (they are currently 2 for $10 at CVS!). These babies hold 64 oz of water, so I’ve been drinking about 1 1/2 of them daily… which is a TON of water. The recommended amount for women is somewhere around 90 oz and it has been SO helpful for me to have a visual “mile marker” to make sure I’m drinking enough. Ten points to Mitch for the stroke of brilliance!

When we came back, it was time for egg dying and breakfast! We had French Toast (that was delicious) and got right to work making a boring bowl of white eggs into colorful masterpieces.

It was a blast! And let me just say this- Ayden (Mitch’s nephew) is an egg dying m.a.c.h.i.n.e.

Here’s my favorite shot from the day: 3 generations of egg dying!

The rest of the day, we spent relaxing. I coerced Mitch into taking me to the local thrift store that I only get to frequent when we’re in the area, visiting family. Nothing great to report, just a few spring-y tops that I snagged for a few buckaroos each. After that, we all settled into the family room and watched one of my favorite childhood movies of all time (that I had totally forgotten about!)…

It was fun to watch Ayden laugh at the goofy comedy that Martin Short provides, but even more hilarious to watch it again as an adult and catch things that I never would have understood as a kid!

After a yummy dinner of salmon (my favorite!) and shrimp, we got dressed and went to the Good Friday service- which was great. I have no pictures of that because, well, I can’t imagine anything more rude and inappropriate than wielding a camera in such a service. 🙂

The next morning, we said our good-byes, loaded up the car, and make the hop, skip, and a jump over to Mitch’s mom’s house. The adventure continues! Not long after we got there, did the whole clan pile into the van and head over to the dog park to get some fresh air and let the dogs run around and play. It was beautiful, but windy and we enjoyed being outside in the sun and fresh air (feels like it’s been forever!).

Oh, and we made some new (and HUGE) doggie friends! This one’s name was Artemis. 🙂

And how about a shot of Mitch and his Mama?

Needless to say, when we got back home, everyone was exhausted and most of us took an afternoon nap. That evening, we met some extended family for dinner and had a great time catching up, eating until we were stuffed, and laughing until we teared up. Okay, the tearing part might have just been me. Let me just say this- there were spitballs and a very unaware grandmother involved. I’ll leave it at that.

After dinner, we played Crazy 8’s until we couldn’t count anymore and then hunkered down for the night, while the Easter bunny made his rounds.

Morning came and Mitch and I sneaked out for another quick run- and what a gorgeous day it was too! A little brisk (but it was only 8:30am and it definitely warmed up later), but still so beautiful and sunny. Let me grace you with a sweaty, post-run shot… just to prove we did it. 🙂

Showers, Easter clothes, and one re-packed car later (we were heading to my parents’ house right from church) and we rolled into church to celebrate the greatest day ever. In history!!! Again, camera wielding= probably frowned upon, but you get the idea. 🙂

Fast forward one short car ride (just over 30 minutes… we really lucked out having our families live so close together) and we pulled into my parents’ house. While Mitch and Dad re-watched the Final Four from the March Madness lineup (who else’s draft was in shambles?), Mom and I chatted about house stuff and I shot some photos of a furniture upgrade she did AND a room renovation (both of which will be featured here on el blog). Here’s a sneak peek:

We sat down to a lunch of hot ham and cheese sandwiches and potato chips before getting ourselves ready to drive over to the big family party. My dad was sick, so he stayed home, but the rest of us headed over to the wild and crazy jamboree complete with an Easter egg hunt and TONS of delicious food. Yum!

My cousin (you’ve also seen her here) Brooke and I were recruited to help hide Easter eggs and I made it my personal mission to use only hiding spots that would require pure tenacity and determination. I thought it only fair, as we had a lot of older “hunters” this year. There were a lot of pricker bushes involved. 🙂

In addition to regular eggs filled with candy (and quarters sometimes, if you’re lucky), there are always two golden eggs hidden… each with $10 inside! My cousin Pearson found one and the other was found by… baby Haddie! She had quite the victory celebration.

Please just take a moment to drool over this cutie patootie with me…

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating, playing Corn hole (we lost to the boys by two measly points, darn it), and just general cousining. 🙂 Yes, that is a verb.

Annnnnd this is what happens when you try to take a selfie. With a selfie stick. Staring right into the sun.

Love these guys.

And after all of that, well, it was time to go back home. By this point in our journey, we had made one giant loop, so we were only about 30 minutes from home and it was nice not to have a looooooong drive ahead of us, especially after such a busy weekend. Let’s just say, as much fun as we had on our trip, there is no place like home. And it’s good to be back. 🙂 I’ll leave you with one last Easter-y shot to wrap things up here… gotta love a good Easter flower!

So how about you? How did you spend your Easter weekend? Traveling? Hosting your own family party? Spill the jellybeans.