Easter and Beyond

Anticipation can be so delicious.  I have been looking so forward to having family here for Easter.  And it was wonderful.  Every bedroom was full of bodies.  Family bodies.  First came Audrey and Isaiah, then the BYUI gang of 4, then Cliff and Rayne.  I had a dream, as usual, for how our Easter celebration would go.  And, as usual, it didn't go as planned.  But it was lovely.  I found some Easter lyrics for the popular song, Hallelujah.  I printed copies up for everyone and we sang it before we ate our Easter dinner.  Mixed reviews on that one.  Our family sound was not exactly melodic.  We managed to share a gratitude for the Savior and His resurrection and that will have to suffice.

The week was so full of busy-ness that there wasn't much time for blogging.  So I didn't.  As you may imagine, I spent a lot of time preparing meals.  But this time everyone helped.  I loved the bonding over food!  Chase's wife Morgan studied much of the time for her nursing certification.  But we had fun around her.  I love how easily everyone just mixed as we did nothing together and sometimes we found an activity to do together.  It was Morgan's birthday, so Layne bought some air balloon tickets and she, along with others in the family, went ballooning.  That seems to be our special activity as this is the third or forth time we've done this.  Layne, Audrey and I had a great time chasing the balloon in our car and finally finding it, at landing, in a field full of new home construction.

The ballooning gang:  Trena (friend of Morgan's), Morgan, Chase, Isaiah and Allegra.

                                                   Chase having fun mowing the lawn.

                                    Morgan's birthday (Rayne shaped the candles into "21").

While everyone was here we gave a presentation on Porn to the Bishops in the stake, warning them of its prevalence and giving them ideas for helping their members avoid it.  I don't feel like it was wonderful but I do think we made our points clearly.  So that will have to do.


                                         The Adams-Hart gang relaxing in the living room.

                                     The college gang leaving.  Allegra's smile of goodbye.

At one of our Mongolian presentations, Layne sang a crazy song called, "I Am My Own Grandpa."

One of the projects Layne and Isaiah worked on was putting new lights in the living room.  Isaiah is demonstrating the wonder of it all.

By Monday all our company was gone, except Isaiah, who chose to stay with us for a couple of weeks.  Sometimes I worry that it will be boring here with us older guys.  But Isaiah seems to be a pretty easy-going guy.  He is nice to have around because of that.  He doesn't expect to be entertained every minute and seems to be happy and willing to work on the various projects that Layne has on his to do list.  He is quite a capable boy.  His latest passion is driving.  Since he will turn 16 in another week or so, he wants to drive everywhere we go.  So he does.  He's pretty good too.

This next little while will be full of traveling for us.  This coming week we plan to celebrate Isaiah's birthday, and drive to Washington to spend a couple of days with Chris and Jes.  Of course Isaiah will drive.  Next week we will fly to California with him and stay there for a week or so.  I'm excited to be spending so much time with family after a winter without them.