Our Busy Easter Weekend

Candy makes kids happy! (Trust me, Celeste IS happy...her mouth is too full of candy to smile :) )

Many people use Easter weekend as a time to reflect on the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. We do that as well...but we also like do lots of other stuff...

...like hike in the mountains!!

Ever since we moved to Sahuarita four years ago, we've taken a family trip up to Madera Canyon on Good Friday (the Friday before Easter Sunday). As always, we had a wonderful time--and the weather was perfect! It was a little overcast, and nearly 80 degrees at the foot of the mountain; that meant good hiking weather!

 The view was wonderful...more so because of the three little beauties running around.

Our girls, however, are still quite young, and some (not naming names) are a little wimpy. As a result, we weren't able to hike an entire trail. We went up as far as we could, until the whining and the limping finally convinced us to turn back. I hope we can make it a little higher up each year...and I hope we get weather that beautiful each year as well!

There was fun to be had at the trailhead, too...as I've mentioned in a few previous blog posts, the girls love to play in the creek. This Good Friday was no exception!

As you can see by Celeste's facial expression, the water was a bit cold.

Aurora was a little leery of the creek, at first; however, she soon caught the spirit of the event and started splashing around with her sisters.

Oh, and Lorelai got to ride a bear, too...

...in the gift shop. What, do you think we're crazy or something??

Anyway, that was our Good Friday...a very "good" Friday, indeed.

The following day, April 7th, we drove up to Phoenix for our ward's trip to the Mesa Temple. The plan was to meet our friends and do a baby-sitting exchange--we would watch their children while they went through a temple session, and then they'd do the same for us in return. This time, things didn't quite go according to plan...we watched all the kids (and luckily had access to the stake center next door), but our friends' session went very long--and by the time they came back to trade with us, the temple was about to close for the day (the annual Easter pageant was that night, and the temple usually closes early on pageant nights).

We were a little bummed that we didn't make it to the temple...but our friends kindly volunteered to watch our children so we could make another temple trip on our own in a few weeks. In the meantime, we'd made other plans for the afternoon...we decided to visit the Phoenix Zoo for the first time!

This zoo is much larger than the Tucson zoo we regularly visit; as a result, we felt like we didn't get to see a ton of animals (although the habitats were all large, clean and well-kept). However, the Phoenix Zoo does a good job catering to its younger visitors; playgrounds, interactive stations, splash pads and other "break" stations abound throughout the park.

Our girls really enjoyed the petting zoo/farm animal area; Lorelai is in a "cow" phase right now (she loves everything bovine!), so this was a dream come true for her!

Aurora loved the goats; she couldn't stop following them around and watching jealously as everyone else petted them!

Luckily, just when everyone started getting pooped late in the afternoon, we found this super-cool splash park (designed like a desert cave), which helped everyone rejuvenate and relax in time for our trip home:

We caught dinner at Cracker Barrel, one of our favorite restaurants, on our way out of Phoenix. We got home late that night; not quite the day we expected, but still pretty good, all things considered.

After a long night of sleep, it was time to go hunting for some Easter eggs!

(Daddy hid some pretty high up)

...or "hunt for just a couple of Easter eggs and then immediately start eating them," if you're Aurora...

As you can imagine, lots of candy was consumed that day...

...and that night, we ate our traditional leg of lamb and watched a video of the life of Christ. So, a nice Easter. I led the Sharing Time, giving each Primary child a plastic Easter egg with a small message inside:

"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live...And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” - John 11:25-26

In spite of all the candy you see above, I know what Easter is all about...the great gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am thankful for that gift every day of my life, and thankful for this holiday, which provides a special time to reflect upon it.