Easter

We had a nice Easter celebration on Saturday at Floyd Lamb Park -- a surprising Oasis here in the Vegas desert that I didn't now existed until Carrie told me about it. The land is beautifully green with tons of trees and lakes at the center of it all. Pawnee and her kids joined us for a quick visit from Arizona. We missed Christian and Thomas, who were fishing in Tennessee with Grandpa Shipley.

 Aiyana, wearing the new outfit Aunt Pawnee bought for her. (And the one picture I was able to snatch before she ripped off her flower clip. I miss the flower headbands already!)

 Rachel and Maile threw the frisbee around before lunch and did pretty well!

 I love the look of anticipation in Aiya's face. . .

  and her priceless grin!

 Muah!

 Jake manning the grill, as usual, with his handsome little boy.

 I need to get more pics of the two of these cousins playing together. Well . . . not exactly playing. More like Aiyana stealing his binky, but they sure look cute sitting next to each other.

After our scrumptious picnic, the men distracted the kids with feeding peacocks while the women played Easter Bunny.

 Ethan faired well enough with the help of Uncle Dan.

 Shelbi hurt herself right at the beginning of the egg hunt so we was a little behind the race for candy, so we helped her out a little. She was a happy little scavenger by the end of it.

 One egg was particularly challenging, requiring a bit more effort. Nice work, Rach.

Sadly, I didn't get any pics of Lila but she seemed like she had a great time.

 Aiyana's egg-hunt didn't go beyond these two eggs in her hand, but she is still enjoying playing with the empty plastic shells at home. That day, she was infatuated with the grass and throwing little tantrums whenever I tried to prevent her from eating it. She just wanted to do whatever she wanted! Made our picnic a little tricky with her stinker-ness.

 Still, how can we not just love that face and give her whatever she wants?? You win, Aiya. For now.

Love this little boy! Such a cute face.

As fun as Easter Egg hunts are, I am even more grateful for the true purpose behind Easter. So grateful for Jesus Christ and His Atonement, and how much better I understand it now. So excited to keep learning more.