Easter 2018 ...

Easter was April 1, 2018. Originally, I wasn't going to blog this year (or 2017). There wasn't a Westra gathering for the holiday either year. No egg hunt in the Westra backyard, fuzzy ear pictures or stickers on faces.  But then I thought, perhaps I'll note WHY there wasn't one ... just to keep the record straight. And there are a few photos after all ...

In 2018, Shane's family was in Cali... and Shane was in Amsterdam. Jensen's weren't going to make it up this year. The numbers had been dwindling, with only a few littles to look for eggs. Mom/Margie sent out a couple emails ...

March 23 ... Since Easter weekend is General Conference weekend this year, with no time to party between meetings, I guess we should skip this year's Easter get together and plan a family get-together here the 1st Sun. in May or last Sunday in April to celebrate the May birthdays. We could do April 29 or May 6. We only have D & D's 3 little girls to hunt eggs. All our little ones are growing up! New Haven moved the neighborhood Easter egg hunt to tomorrow instead of Easter weekend because of conference.

March 25... When we mentioned not having the Easter get-together here because of conference, Rick wrote and invited us to come there for Easter/Conf. weekend, and said they were off Fri. and Mon. So we decided to do that and will leave Thursday morning and return home Tues. morning.  We needed to be to church by 8:15 this morning for choir since they were having the Easter program today and singing. It was mainly a missionary farewell for a girl in our ward, but the choir sang a beautiful number, the piano guy did a cello solo, his 7-year- old son sang a solo, and we had our "ward orchestra." It consisted of 12 people---6 adults, 3 teens, and 3 younger children. Mostly violins. We really have a musical ward. A couple other violinists were out of town.

A few days later Wendy wrote ...

Mom and Dad arrived Thursday night and so I brought Dad to Josh's soccer game with me. The score was 2-0 and Josh scored both goals and so he was pretty happy about that. This is only rec soccer -- Josh really wants to try out for competitive soccer. He is a good little player and so I think he would do well in it. Rick and I were asked to interpret for a big musical production down here Friday night (The Lamb of God) and so that was a bit stressful trying to hurry and pull that together. Friday morning the post office called and said that Jared's call was here!! Rick and I were interpreting that night and one of Jared's best friends was working until 10:00 and so he set the mission opening for 10:30. He had about 25 people there. Saturday we all slept in. This is the first year we didn't bring our kids to the city Easter egg hunt. We just had our own hunt!! We really enjoyed General Conference today. Rick and my Dad and Jared went to the Priesthood Session at the church and then went to Carl's Jr. I think that will be a good change to combine the High Priests with the Elder's Quorum.The older girls hid eggs for Josh and Jenna and Jenna's friends, Clarissa and Audrey. We had a nice Easter. The kids got their Easter baskets this morning and then Rick and Jared made our traditional "Conference Crepes." They were even better than usual now since Jared works at the Crepery and was able to share his knowledge. We really enjoyed conference this weekend and were touched by the amazing spirit felt during the talks and music! All of the kids took notes -- even Jenna! During the break the kids dyed Easter eggs. Tonight we had a delicious turkey dinner and then Grandma and Grandpa played games with the kids while Rick and I skyped Janika and tried to figure out a time to go up North to meet Brandon's parents.

Here's a few photos from the other families ...

The Blackham family takes Easter pictures! ;) 

Email from Jen:

Hope everyone had a good Easter. I've gone a little overboard on the "nests" this year, making many batches of them. Really only Cooper, Cal and I like them, but we LOVE them. Not sure why I only make them at Easter. The ducks started laying just in time for Easter! True "hunts" each morning to see if I can find any. Coop accidentally colored his hand ... don't mix silly putty and playdough (he was trying to make the putty a bit softer)! The orange color did NOT want to come off!