Through My Eyes: April 10, 2007

Hello Everyone,
Quick update while waiting for Christian to finish getting ready. My family came on Saturday-- Mama, Daddy, Abe, Christian, and Eva. Of course Saturday was the day that a nasty awful cold front came sweeping across Austin. It was really cold and rainy ALL day. I had wanted to get the yard cleaned up before they got here, but that didn't happen! The boys were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and their aunt and uncles. Grandma sat in the back seat with Mosey and Joseph (had to leave Brigham home or else there wouldn't be room in our van!) and talked with them all about everything all the way home.
Sunday morning was church as usual, and it was great, as usual. My mom commented on what a great ward we have, and she's right. We have fabulous gospel doctrine teachers and although I wasn't in Relief Society, my mom said it was just as good. After church I got Easter dinner going (turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, carrots), and my mom set up a really nice spiritual easter egg hunt. Each egg (ok, so actually zip lock bags) had something in it relating to the atonement-- 3 dimes for the 30 pieces of silver, a toothpick cross, red material, white material, sweet spices, a stone, etc. And quotes or scriptures relating to that item included. It was a great, tangible way to explain the story of Easter. Later in the afternoon (after a very nice nap), we had a regular easter egg hunt which my boys also enjoyed (no surprise there), and they had about 5 minutes to eat candy before they had to put their baskets away for dinner. My dinner wasn't nearly as fancy as what Christine made (and probably not as tasty either!), but it was still good. And it was fun to be cooking with my mom and sister, and to be cooking for more people than my own little family! After dinner we went on a little hike through a green belt near our house. My dad and Abe had fun horsing around and climbing this tree that was about 30 feet high! Eek!
Monday (yesterday), I took my dad and Abe and my boys to the Texas State History Museum where we watched the "Texas: the Big Story" IMAX movie, which I enjoyed just as much the second time, and then went through the museum. This was the 3rd time my boys have been through the museum, so we mostly spent time in the gift shop reading some books in there, and letting the boys peruse items and decide how they would spend their chore money. Joseph bought a spinning charm necklace that looks vaguely like the time changing necklace the Hermione wears in Harry Potter, Brigham bought an envelope with some Texas Republic currency (not real), and Mosey bought a spinning, light-up thingamajig. Which got broken before we even made it home. But it is ok, I was able to fix it acceptably with a piece of packing tape. Then we ate a picnic lunch (leftover turkey sandwiches-- yum-- my favorite part of a turkey dinner) outside the capitol building. My boys were in quite the silly mood. Joseph and Brigham decided there was a "Purkey" under the window well grate, and were dropping small bits of food to it. Mosey got really into this game, too, and wanted to drop animal cookies, and large portions of his lunch to the "purkey," and got a little upset when the "purkey" wouldn't come out! Brigham and Joseph then gave a pretty good tour of the capitol to Daddy and Abe. Brigham remembered about the murals of the battle of the Alamo and San Jacinto that were in the Senate. Abe and Daddy both concluded that Texas as a state has the biggest ego (probably by several orders of magnitude) of any state in the nation. I think my dad enjoyed reading about the history of Texas and some of the important historical characters in state history. In the afternoon we went home and picked up Christian, and my mom (my mom and Eva were both not feeling well-- my mom particularly, which is why they didn't come with us to the capitol, etc.), and went to Lake Travis and went on a little walk up one of the tributary creeks. It is beautiful down there, although Mosey was very tired and had really had it and was quite unhappy most of the way back. And fell asleep within about 2 minutes of getting back in the van.
Last night Ben took my dad and brothers to eat at County Line to enjoy some Texas barbecue. The rest of us went back home (Mosey was asleep, and I needed to get the boys to bed at a decent hour), and did our usual monday night routine of dinner and FHE.
So that brings us to today! My dad had to leave this morning, and the big boys are in school (I kept them home yesterday to go to the museum and capitol), and it is still drizzly and awful outside, although supposedly it should clear up by this afternoon. I think we may go to the Inner Space Caverns.
I hope everyone is doing well!

My boys in their darling easter bunny hats Grandma made for them. Mosey has had his on pretty much continuously since then. Yes, even at church.

I tried to stop Joseph in the middle of the easter egg hunt for this picture, and as you can see he was NOT happy to be interrupted from the hunt!

Mosey can't wait till after the hunt to check out what's inside!

Happy Brigham. He had fun even though it was cooooold outside.

Hey, Joseph found the Easter Kitty!

Brigham with his Easter loot. Also note the cool shark tooth necklace he is wearing. He did a bunch of chores for that one.

Abe in the reeeaaally high tree. I was using my 90mm lens, so you can't see how high up it really was, but it was making my heart pound just watching him!

And my dad had to also prove his manliness by climbing up the same tree after Abe.

Eva and my mom at the end of our hike. It was so pretty!

Grandpa and Grandma with Mosey and Brigham. Joseph ran off to follow dad back down the trail before I could get this picture.

Brigham and one of his block masterpieces. He really is very good at making block creations. He is very meticulous and everything must be symmetrical. Futere civil engineer perhaps?