Easter Week--Snow, Rain, Eggs and Crickets

It was a very VERY busy Easter Week! Our home was packed full of people for most of the week. It was crazy, but fun. Lucky Dragon and Koala Bear loved having all of their cousins at the house.

We tried to do everything that we could to remind ourselves of the meaning of Easter. Which means we read about the Savior's life in the "Come Follow Me: Family and Home Study Guide" and we watched the many videos that are produced about Christ and his last week on Earth. Hopefully the children will remember parts of this as they grow.

We started the week by taking Balint, a friend from Hungary where Madre and Kell are serving their LDS mission, up into the mountains. We drove up by the ski resorts of Alta and were shocked at the amount of snow there was. (I guess we should not have been shocked as it did snow three days prior!) It was a beautiful drive. We could see all of the skiers finishing their day of runs. We stopped to take photos with the walls of snow that were higher than two of our vehicles stacked on top of each other. Then ended up taking the leisurely walk through the Temple Quarry area where the granite was harvested for the Salt Lake Temple years ago. It was so fun to be outside. The little Muggles loved it. We walked up the river bed, that was dry still, for quite awhile. It always surprises us to see how determined Koala Bear is. She was going to keep up with her brother despite the fact that he has longer legs, better balance and some of the rocks he was jumping from were taller than she was!

We were able to watch some mountain goats grazing high about the cliffs. In fact, on our little drive we were able to see so much wildlife--great for showing off Utah in all its glory to a European visitor. We saw mountain goats, wild turkeys, deer, antelope and elk! All in one loop!

Lady Hiva did not want a photo. I warned her that one was going to be posted so she might as well smile. This was the reaction. #canyousaypapparazzi?

Helping her brother out up the big hill!

Returning the favor the rest of the way.

She trusts him so much. They were flying down the hill as they rode. He was laughing and she was cackling with joy! Little did she know that one small turn of the bike and her life was in his hands. That is true love and trust.

These are her favorite people Minnie, Mickey, Peppa and "Kitty Cat" that is really a llama but she insists is a cat (not pictured: George, he should be there too).

I took Balint up to Temple Square to look around. It was kind of fun to see the place from a tourist point of view. Although we both had to laugh as the tour guide was talking about how old all the buildings were that we could see from the rooftop. To a European, 100 year old homes are young still!

Lucky Dragon ran in the fundraiser for his school. it is new and they are desperately needing books, so they did a March-of-Dimes style run to collect money. Lady Hiva and Koala Bear went to cheer him on. it was so fun to receive photos throughout the day as he keep going. Lady Hiva said all the other kids quit but he and one other girl kept running! Maybe I will have a running partner in a few years!

We did an Easter Egg hunt with all of Lady Hiva's family. It was fun to see how excited Lucky Dragon was. While Lady Hiva and I cooked food for our family event AND the our congregation event that was the same day, Lucky Dragon stuffed eggs. I was so proud of him and his determination to keep going. He did not complain nor ask to stop he just kept working! A whole laundry basket full!

At work one of my colleagues and I were discussing Easter Eggs and I had the idea to put crickets in the eggs. I shared the idea with Lucky Dragon and he was excited so he and I went to the pet store and bought large crickets that you usually buy to feed reptiles and we stuffed some eggs with crickets. It was quite the adventure trying to get the jumping little things into the small plastic eggs! We laughed and chased and had them jumping all over us!

The screaming and stories that ensued as cousins and their parents opened their eggs to find not candy but crickets was AMAZING!

 

This is how Koala Bear helped us! She toured the beautiful gardens Lady Hiva is cultivating with a flower bucket on her head!

We came with our laundry basket of eggs, Lady's sister had a storage bin full of eggs, one brother had several grocery bags full of eggs, and another brother had a rubbish bag full of eggs--some with money and prizes.

Waiting to come out and collect eggs.

 

After a fun filled day with cousins, the Easter bunny came to our house while the children were sleeping. He even pooped all over the house! GASP! Koala Bear wasted no time running out and picking them up to eat (Whoppers). Lucky Dragon thought it was hilarious that Lady Hiva and I thought that Whoppers were rabbit poop! "Why would the Easter Bunny leave poop in our house?"

 He found the golden egg with money in it!! He was ecstatic!

 Again, I was proud of this little guy--Seems I was proud of him a lot this week. He opened up his new box of Legos and without help built the whole thing himself!

 I wanted to take some photos of the Muggles in their new Church clothes, Koala Bear was NOT having it! She was SO mad that I forced her to change out of pajamas and then do her hair *gasp*! Lucky Dragon was willing to cooperate though.

 And guess what?!! It rained again...and included some hail! A lot of hail! This is a photo of where the gutters drain into the lawn!