Easter Lake Weekend

So....I just had a complete post about my Easter weekend done and somehow deleted the entire thing. Totally bummed. But, I am going to try to push through and just get something posted before it takes me another week to get it out there. I also am sad because my memory card decided to quit working right as we were heading out of town so all of my pictures are from my iphone or Christine's camera (thanks!)

Our Easter weekend was really so much fun. We went to the lake house with all the Harrison's and Reads'. Both Ben and Diana's birthdays fell on Easter weekend and so we went out for a double celebration. It was crazy with tons of people (21 throughout the weekend...18 spent the night),air mattresses everywhere, more food and drinks than you could ever intake, and lots of memories made.

Kinley was out of school on Friday and Ben only had a half day of work so we got to the lake in plenty of time for some outdoor fun.






When the Reads got there, David & Andrew taught Kinley some ladder ball.

And we all got ready for an intense crawfish boil. (Boil or broil?? I say boil since you boil the crawfish in a pot and dont broil them in an oven...but, crawfish broil sounds more normal to me for some reason)...Anyway, the crawfish were amazing. This was only half of what was cooked.

Kinley was not too sure about them.

The boys had some late night campfire talks.



The days were filled with lots of lake activities. We played in the sand, layed out, boated and jet-skiied.






One of Kinley's favorite activities was pulling Uncle Alex on the tube in to the shore and pushing him back out again. Not too bad of a job for Uncle Alex if you asked me.


But, Alex did brave the cold water with her when she wanted to swim.





Ty chilled out in his Go-Pod for a while.


Kinley got to fish for the first time. She loved the fish but wanted to be sure they got to go back into the water.






Franchesca brought Kinley her birthday present which was a make your own crown and wand kit. It was so sweet of her to get her something they could spend time doing together.


Saturday night we celebrated Diana & Ben's birthday by opening presents on the dock and then having some birthday cake.


I guess babies like to chew on empty beer bottles??




Also, Christine was determined to get another group family picture of everyone. The last one we took was in Cancun in 2008 before Mendy was around or Kinley & Ty were born. We had an interesting time trying to capture this picture. Our neighbors that were over for dinner were not the best picture takers and kept cutting people out....and trying to be in the picture with us....so, finally we set up our own self-timer and got a decent one. I do want to do another one some day soon with the kids though.






Sunday was Easter morning and the Easter Bunny did come see Kinley & Ty...but, I don't have any pictures of it. Bummer. We have been talking alot lately about the true meaning of Easter and using the imagery of an empty egg for the empty tomb of the resurrected Jesus. Kinley has been excited when she opens empty eggs at home. During her Easter basket rummage she kept looking for the empty egg. Every time she opened one that had candy or something in it she would say "It's not the empty egg" and keep looking for it again. When she finally did get it she was excited and I asked her what an empty egg meant. She said "God is Gone!" Pretty close. I look forward to that tradition on Easter's to come.

We were super sad to miss church and our church Easter egg hunt since we were out of town. But, we did take a note from Allison during the weekend and let Kinley hunt for her lunch one day. She had chicken, strawberries, cheese, crackers and jelly beans and loved having a picnic after her egg hunt.




I hope you guys had a very Happy Easter and celebrated that "God is gone" and that the tomb was empty and Jesus is Alive!