Our Easter Weekend

Happy Belated Easter everyone!  I hope ya'll had a great Easter and spring break.  We just returned home from seeing family and a week's vacation in West Virginia.  A new travel series of our trip to West Virginia will begin next week Wednesday.  Gosh, that's a beautiful state!  No wonder they call it "Almost Heaven"!

We arrived at our daughter's/son-in-law's home the Saturday before Easter and just enjoyed dinner and playing with the grandchildren.  They just got rid of all their carpeting and had new laminate floors put in, so little Laz enjoyed Grandpa pushing him across the room in his toy wagon.

The next day was Easter Sunday so we went to church.  I asked my son-in-law if they could leave a little bit before us so I could hide the children's Easter Baskets.  I had never done that before because the little ones were always around so it was impossible.  When we returned home from church I told the kids that somewhere in this house were four Easter baskets, and they had to find them.  They were SO excited and had so much fun searching for them.  I really didn't hide them too much  (I just put them inside closets), yet they still had such a hard time finding them.  I was so surprised by that.  I eventually had to give the older two a clue.  But despite the difficulty of them finding the baskets, they sure had fun and were so excited when they eventually found their own basket.

Laz was the first to find his but I put his basket in the most obvious spot (next to the couch) plus we told him where to look.  😀

The next one to find his basket was Elisha.  I could not believe how excited he was to find it!  It made me so happy to see the joy on the grandchildren's faces. 

I knew they would be hunting for Easter Eggs later in the day, so I didn't give them much candy.  Most of the baskets were healthy treats and inexpensive toys.

They loved everything in the baskets.  Laz always likes the treats the best.  The boys loved their squirt gun swords.

Alethea was the very last to find her basket, but she sure was excited!

She is growing up now and doesn't play with toys anymore so I gave her some blue and turquoise nail polish which she was thrilled about!

For supper we had a simple Easter meal of ham, potatoes, veggies, and sourdough bread.  I couldn't believe how fast the grandchildren gobbled up that ham!

Laz especially had quite the hearty appetite!

My husband and I.

My daughter and son--in-law.

After dinner, we took a walk.  It was a chilly Easter, and Monday was even colder, but by Tuesday the temperatures started to rise again so we had a great vacation!

Atticus and Elisha were constantly running ahead of us so they got hot and took their coats off.

I, on the other hand, was so cold I had to put my hood up!

The kids led us to a new section of the trail that was recently renovated to include ponds, boat docks, piers, bridges, and picnic tables.  It is not complete yet, but it sure looks beautiful already!

The geese are sure enjoying the new pond waters!

The next morning my husband, son, and I started the nine hour drive all the way to the far east side of West Virginia.  We would start our adventure there and make our way back to west across the state the rest of the week until we ended back at our daughter's the following weekend.

When we arrived at my daughter's house a week later, the temperatures were much warmer and we were able to spend a lot of time outdoors.

My husband and I spend hours just pushing Laz up and down the sidewalk in this little toy car.  He loved getting in and out of the car, pushing it himself, and even "driving" it himself with his little feet.

We returned home the next day.  It is always fun to take a vacation, but it's nice to come home again and back to a routine.  The kitties were sure happy to see us!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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On The Road Again, First Stop: Indiana For Easter

This is the first post of a new travel series.  In this series, we are headed east starting in Wisconsin and going all the way to Virginia to see the home of George Washington and Colonial Williamsburg.  But first, we stop in Indiana to celebrate Easter with my daughter, son-in-law, and the grandchildren.

It is about an eight hour drive from Wisconsin to Indiana, so my daughter's home is always the perfect pit stop to spend the night when traveling east.  I mean, who can beat not only a free room and meal for the night, but sweet time with these adorable little ones I call my grandchildren.  

I always love to go east in the spring because ya'll have a lot warmer temperatures than us northerners, plus I enjoy seeing the flowering trees and green grass.  I've been told these beautiful purple trees blooming all over the road sides as one heads east or Eastern Red buds.

I make one digital scrapbook a year for my grandchildren and I give it to them at Easter.  They love to look at photos of themselves and see all the things they have done during the year.

I also give them Easter baskets which they love opening!

This was the first year Lazarus was able to get an Easter basket.  He turned one in May.  Boy, did he get a kick out of opening up his basket.  He kept thinking "Is this really all for me?"  He wanted to eat everything in his basket at once.  Now if you're wondering what I put in a one year old's Easter basket that he could eat, it wasn't candy.  I purchased almost everything at Aldi:  dehydrated strawberries, and all the baby treats Aldi sells. 

The older kids got Easter crafts, some candy, healthy treats and small toys.

The boys favorite toy was some water bubble guns I purchased for $4.99 at Menards.  They had so much fun with them!

The next day we went to church where they had an Easter brunch and a lovely service.

In the afternoon we had an Easter Egg hunt.

We spent the rest of the day playing with the all the new toys and enjoying a traditional ham dinner.  It was a beautiful day. The weather was so perfect we even tried kite flying!  It worked great until Alethea let go of the kite.  😀

The next morning we were up at the crack for our next stop:  Frederick Maryland where we would spend the night before arriving at Mt. Vernon the next morning.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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A Happy Easter Weekend Until it was Not

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter last weekend, I know I sure did;  but anytime I get to spend time with the grand babies is a happy time, and add to that celebrating our resurrected savior together makes it extra special!

We drove down to Indianapolis to spend Easter at my daughter and son-in-law's home.  The weather was only in the 40's in Wisconsin when we left but it was a balmy 78 degrees by the time we hit southern Illinois.  The warm sun felt wonderful.

The grandkids were so excited to see us again.  That makes me feel so loved and special.  They were pushing aside the curtains and watching out the windows when we arrived.  By the time our car pulled into the driveway they burst out the front door and ran out to greet us.  My husband said, "This must be just how Jesus will feel when He comes to get His bride."

After all the hugs and kisses Atticus says to my husband "I missed you so much Grandpa Todd.  It was too long since we saw you".  That made me want to cry.  The last time we saw them was at Christmas.  It's hard being a long distance grandparent.

After an eventful evening, we had the grandkids open their Easter baskets on Saturday night because I bought them new Easter clothes to wear to church the next morning and they were in their baskets.  Sorry the photo is so blurry.  I've been trying to take less photos and "live in the moment" more but then I don't get the nice photographic memories either.  It's hard.  I don't want my grandkids to grow up with a phone in their face, but I want the precious memories preserved too.  

My daughter is eight months pregnant so I brought the baby a gift.  It's an adorable onesie that says "Someone in Wisconsin Loves Me".

My son came with us on this trip as he was able to get some time off work.  The grandkids loved seeing him again too.  He's nice to have around for when the grandkids wear us out with play, he can play with them a bit and give us a break 😁

The next morning we went to my daughter and son-in-laws church.  They always do a nice Easter breakfast.  I couldn't believe how much food little Elisha could put down.  Yes, he ate almost everything on that plate.  My daughter and son-in-law are going to have one huge grocery bill feeding three boys!

Atticus did not appreciate having his meal interrupted to have his photo taken 😂

Both of my grandsons are crazy in love with their Grandpa Todd.  This little guy ran right past me and straight for Grandpa Todd when we arrived at my daughter's house and pretty much stuck to him like glue all weekend long.  Part of me feels bad that they prefer their grandfather so much over me, but then another part thinks it's the sweetest thing in the world how much they adore their grandpa.

Alethea and I however have our own special bond.  She loves her Grandpa Todd too, but there's something special between a grandmother and granddaughter.

The church had a little photo background set up where families could take selfies.  That's always nice when churches do that.

I just loved the tulips, they are my favorite spring flower.  I forgot to mention that when we were driving to Indiana what joy it was to start to see green:  green grass and some bushes were already leafed out.  Then we started to see lots and lots of white flowering trees, and by the time we arrived in Indiana all the daffodils were in bloom.  It's still quite brown here in Wisconsin, although my daffodils have pushed out of the ground.  I'm not sure if they will bloom though as we've had freezing temperatures plus over 8 inches of snow since they budded.  But we will see.

My gorgeous daughter eight months pregnant.  Don't you love her dress?  It's not even a maternity dress.  She bought it at Shein.  She buys all her dresses there.  I've never shopped from that site but all her beautiful clothes tempt me.

When we got home from church we had a quick lunch of sandwiches then we began the annual Easter Egg Hunt!  The kids have so much fun hunting for Easter Eggs!

The next day, we visited a local park.  The area my daughter lives in has so many great parks to visit.  

It was nice to have Jordan around so he could get into the playground equipment with the kids. 😂

Atticus has become quite the climber!  This kid will be scaling mountains soon!

And I couldn't believe Elisha was brave enough to go down such a tall slide!

He sure enjoyed it! No fear at all!  Just look at the smile on that face!

After a day like that, we wore the kiddos out so it was time to settle down and watch a movie, of which Elisha fell promptly to sleep.  😄

The next day it was time to drive home and the weather looked terrible.  I considered staying another day, but it did not look like the weather would improve until the weekend and we couldn't possibly stay that long.  The boys both had to be back at work, plus I only set out a few days of food for my cat, not a full week, so we just had to brave it up and go.  For nine hours we drove through every type of weather extreme there was:  torrential downpours, high winds, sleet, hail, ice, fog, and snow.  I kept thinking we would drive out of the rain in Indiana and Illinois, but the farther north we drove we ended up driving into a winter storm.  It was awful, and it was NOT even forecasted so I was not dressed for it.  I only had a sweatshirt, jean jacket, lightweight sweat pants, and ballet shoes.  I checked the weather on the Friday before we left and it said "sixties and clear".  How could the weather change so drastically in three days?  

But eventually we made it home safely and thankfully we left early enough that we beat the worst of the storm because later that day people were posting photos on FB of cars and semis spun out in ditches and highway traffic blocked for miles.  We only saw one car in a ditch on the way home.  I set my alarm for 5:00 am that day and ended up waking up abruptly at 4:00 am so I just decided rather than try and get back to sleep to just get up and go home.  The good Lord must have woken me up knowing that the roads would get worse and worse as the day went on, because we got through the worst part of the drive before the worst part of the winter storm.

When we finally arrived in our neighborhood, we went directly to vote because it was our state's primary.  That was weird.  Drive nine hours in a horrible storm, then show up to vote frazzled.  Good thing we did our research beforehand and knew exactly what was on the ballot so we were prepared, a lot of people were not.  Then when we got to our house, Jackson was so happy to see us.  He, like the grandchildren three days earlier, was also eagerly waiting at the window 😂.  When we entered the house all the kitchen cupboards were open because apparently the little guy ate all his food and was looking for more! So it was a good thing we came home, or he would have been one hungry kitty.  I don't know what happened there, I put more than enough food out for him.  Either he over-ate or a mouse ate got in his food.  I felt so bad for him and I will definitely leave out even more food for him next time.

So what about you?  How was your Easter weekend?  Have you ever had to drive a long distance in bad weather?  I'd love to hear from you!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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