He has risen!

This past weekend we headed up to Michigan to celebrate Easter with Chris' family in the Detroit area.  It was a great little weekend away from life here in Chicago and so great to spend time with family.  I'm still getting used to the fact that now visits to see extended family is no more than a tank of gas, instead of the 15 hours of international travel and thousands of dollars of plane tickets.  It's definitely a great perk of being back in the States. 

And even though we all seem to be fighting some nasty cold, it was a fabulous weekend with many adventures.  We just made sure to always have a lot of Kleenex on hand.

Friday morning we finished up some shopping for the kid's Easter outfits and then in the afternoon we headed to the Detroit Institute of Art which was such a great museum.  Breck loved the the suits of armor and the mummies.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I have no documentation of the visit.

Saturday we kicked the day off dying Easter eggs.

And then in the afternoon we headed to Mayberry (or maybe it's Maybury? Help me out, Detroiters.) State Park

Elsa LOOOOOOOOVES her Uncle Jeff.  Loves him.  Loves him.  Loves him.  Can not get enough of him.  It's very sweet.

They have a farm at the park with lots of animals and they all seemed to love having lots of people around and the attention they got.  Elsa was in heaven.  This girl loves animals.

The horses were HUGE and so sweet.  Look how little my kids are!

Another highlight of the weekend for Elsa was pushing around the umbrella stroller that Grandma Kathy had for her.  I think she spent about 5% of her time riding in it and the other 95% pushing it around.  

Breck was excited about the llamas.  Felt like being in Quito again.

Breck checking out the baby yaks.

I think the farm looks good on this boy.

Kiddos with Grandma Kathy

After the farm, we headed over to one of the many playgrounds.  

Easter Morning!

"HAPPY EASTER!!  HE HAS RISEN!!"

Now, you would think I would have learned my lesson after trying to take pictures of the kids at Christmas all dressed up.  But, apparently I did not.  I must remember to schedule in time for photos BEFORE church.  Because after church I nearly always have grumpy, hungry, uncooperative, fighting children.  My dreams of a long and lovely photo shoot are boiled down to about 5 minutes of chaos.  But, they were looking might cute!

Love this one of the kids snuggling with Uncle Jeff :)

This Lenten and Easter season has been so meaningful to me this year.  Perhaps because the past few years we have been in Ecuador where the evangelical church does not follow closely the liturgical calendar.  Or perhaps I am just in a different place in my life now and see more of what Christ is trying to teach me.  Whatever the reason, I am blown away by this God that walks beside us in our suffering and calls us out of death and into life.