home for Easter weekend.

Because of Kevin's thesis work, family schedules and church responsibilities we had almost the whole Easter weekend to ourselves.  With the myriad of events leading up to and following Sister Ann's mission departure (and David's mission call) combined with the deadline for Kevin's thesis defense getting so close, we have not had a lot of personal family time.
 This past weekend ended up being just what we needed with beautiful weather and some scheduled family time away from daily tasks and thesis-es.
We decided spur of the moment to go out to eat together at a little local place called Casa Salza. (known for their creamy salsa) It was so FUN to get out together and enjoy each others' company away from all the distractions at home.

 We got to have a virtual chat with our dear friends (and cousins) Taryn and James to hear all their "moving to Texas" advice, which was very helpful but mostly I LOVED shnarning with them again. (sigh)
Kevin also made traditional Greek Easter cookies, Koulourakia. (He is 1/4 Greek, his Grandma is full Greek.) They are delicious with a little bit of chocolate milk.

We woke up Saturday morning to beautiful sunshine and decided to get right in the car and drive up the canyon to take advantage of the weather and go for a walk with Lee. It was so fun.  I even enjoyed the comments of the newly married couples we passed on our way back out of the canyon about baby+one on the way.

Sunday during our church services we sang a Hymn, "He is Risen" and though I've sung it a million times, it really struck me again what a miracle it is that Christ is risen and that with His resurrection comes the promise of our families not having to say goodbye when a loved one departs this earth, instead we can look forward to an eternal reunion with each other.  What a miracle and blessing to have such a selfless and perfect older brother in our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We drove up to have dinner at my mom and dad's with my mom's side of the family after church.  I actually was so glad my mom thought to get little Lee an Easter basket (we didn't) since he LOVED taking everything out of it, playing with it, putting it back in and repeating the process over and over. Overall it was really a wonderful weekend for our family and much needed to buoy up my recently very easily "blah" spirits.