Easter in Nebraska

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Of course, it's a reason to celebrate the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us but also because it's finally spring. The air is crisp and fresh and flowers are starting to bloom. It's a time for rebirth and excitement all around.

As I said to Andi on Easter morning, "Jesus has risen! Have you heard?" He sleepily replied, "Yeah, I got the text." :) What a cute jokester of a husband I have!

This Easter, Andi and I drove back to Nebraska to celebrate with my family. We had such a fun, relaxing trip - the weather was perfect on the drive to and from my parent's house which makes all the difference in stress levels making the 7 hour drive South. Also, Andi was able to take off work a little early on Friday and go into work late on Monday so we were able to spend 3 full nights at my parent's. Being able to stay for an extended weekend makes the drive much more manageable. Plus, I got to spend all of Easter Day with my family.

Friday night, we arrived into town about 9pm. My sister Ashley and niece Brooke were over at my parents house and we stayed up late talking and playing. I gave Brookie her Easter basket from Andi and I - told her the Minnesota Easter Bunny came early and wanted her to have it right then (because I can never wait to give her gifts). She was so excited as she pulled out all the presents - new training pants, a coloring book and new crayons, sidewalk chalk, Play-doh, a pinwheel and a Barbie kite. My sister wasn't too excited about the Play-doh - apparently she doesn't allow it at her house (oops!) but isn't that what aunties are for? My mom let us open it anyway and Brookie and I played Play-doh well into the night. She loved it ... and it just melted my heart. What a big girl she's becomming!

"Yook at the Pla-Doh on my nose!" she said

Saturday morning, Ashley and Brookie came back over to my parents house bright and early. We ran a few errands around town, then came back and played outside with some of Brooke's new toys. We played bubbles in the backyard.

Then my parents, sister and Andi came outside and we all colored with sidewalk chalk in the driveway.

My mom and Brookie played Hopscotch and she counted 1, 2, 3 ... she had the best time playing outside!

Next we broke out the Barbie kite. I told you here how I feel about kites and Easter. For us growing up, it was just as much part of our Easter weekend as hunting Easter eggs. I have many fun memories of flying kites with our cousins and I really wanted Brookie to share in our tradition. Fortunately it was pretty windy on Saturday so we were able to get the Barbie kite off the ground.

Unfortunately, it was really windy and the kite didn't make it much past 30 minutes! At one point, it was stuck in this weird wind vortex beside my parent's house and my sister tried to go get it. We died laughing watching the kite dive-bomb her head!

Easter Sunday, we went to church followed by my Aunt Cheri and Uncle Norm's house for lunch. This year, we were missing my sister's boyfriend Jason (who was at military training) and my cousin Jen and her husband Zach (they went to his family's for Easter) so it was a little quieter than usual. Nevertheless, we had a fun day! Norm grilled burgers and hot dogs for lunch and we all played outside with Brookie on the gorgeous afternoon. This was the first year we could really do an Easter egg hunt - last year we tried, but Brookie was just too little to understand what to do. This year, we told her to close her eyes and start counting and we'd hide the eggs. "One, Too, Free, For" she said ....

Everytime I go home (which is usually every 4-5 months) Brooke changes so much. It's fun to see her grow and develop her little personality. When we were back at Christmas time, she was starting to form sentences but you couldn't really understand much of what she was saying. Now, a few months later, she talks so much! One thing I thought was so funny during Easter weekend was her "short term memory loss." Of course being Easter there were jelly beans on the tabletops, in Brookie's Easter basket, etc. So Brooke would eat some and then spit it out (all chewed up and slobbery) and say "I don't like that." But then 20 minutes later, she's eat some more and spit them out all over again. We kept telling her not to eat any more jelly beans but she just couldn't remember she didn't like them!

My Aunt Cheri has a big hill in her backyard and my brother taught her how to roll down like an Easter egg. She had fun doing that for a while ... and then was full of grass stains afterwards.

Finally, a group photo. My family :)

Thanks to my husband and his new fancy camera, there's tons more photos on Andi's Picasa page if you're interested in checking them out!