NYC

I went to New York last week. Not we - me.
Some of the people at church were planning a trip, and I decided to go.
It was just a short weekend trip, but it was so good to get away.
We left on Thur evening, drove all night. We got there on Fri morning, had the whole day to do as we wished. Spent the night at a hotel right in Times Square. Had all day on Sat. Got back on the bus on Sat night, and got home on Sun morning.
Very tiring, but worth it.
It wouldn't have been nearly so hard if I could just sleep on the bus. I didn't sleep at all on the way up. I did sleep some on the way back though, but not much.
I have a hard time sleeping in a vehicle. Not at all like David. He's out as soon as he hits the passenger seat (and unfortunately once in a while in the driver's seat too!).
We had 6 in our little 'group'. Me, my mom, my sister-in-law, my aunt, my cousin, and my sister-in-law's sister-in-law.
We went to the Statue of Liberty, up in the Empire State Building, to the Today show, walked out on the Brooklyn Bridge, down into a basement in Chinatown, went to a Broadway show, shopped in Times Square, went to Ground Zero and rode around on a tour bus and looked at countless other things.
It was a very, very busy 2 days.

Times Square


Mom and me at the Statue of Liberty


View from the Empire State Building


Our 'group' at the Today show


Brooklyn Bridge


While I was gone, David and the boys went to a Casting Crowns concert.
Steven Curtis Chapman's sons also performed.
They had great seats.
I was actually supposed to go, but then the trip to NY came up - so I gave my ticket to someone else and went there instead.

Darrell with SCC's sons

Happy Easter

We went to the egg hunt at church Fri evening.
Leila didn't do quite as well finding the eggs at this one, as she did the one at school.
Maybe because all along, she thought she was just finding eggs for 'fun'.
After the last egg hunt though, she discovered that there was CANDY inside the eggs.
She just couldn't seem to stay with the task of 'finding more eggs', because she wanted to open each one as she found it, to see (and eat) what was inside.


Sunday was a fantastic day.
We didn't make it to sunrise service because it's hard enough on Leila to get up in time for church - much less any earlier. (She doesn't normally get up until 9:00-10:00)
We did get up a little earlier than normal though, to see what the Easter Bunny had brought.


After church we had 15 people here for Easter diner.
The weather was beautiful, the company was great, and the food was delicious.





The boys are on a much shortened spring break right now.
It was originally supposed to be 3 days longer than it is now, but it was cut short due to snow days.
Those were fun (and worth it) at the time, but not so much now.
I spent today putting away Easter things, and the boys spent it mowing the lawn.
Yep, it's that time of year again - already.

Easter Eggs

We went to school last weekend to have breakfast with the Easter Bunny and to go on an Easter egg hunt.
Other than being a little cool, the weather cooperated nicely.
Well - the Easter Bunny, just wasn't happening.
He must just be too scary.
3-4 feet was as close as we could get to him for a picture.

Now the egg hunt, that was a different story.
We've been practicing hiding and finding eggs here at the house, so Leila was more than ready for that.
I really liked the way they had it all set up too.
It was sectioned off by age groups, of course. (Leila was in the 3 and under.)
But what I thought was so great, was that they told the kids to go and find 10 eggs and then come back.
All around us, I could hear parents counting.
And then, I'd hear - 'you've got your 10, you're done for now, let's go back'.
After they made sure all the kids had gotten at least 10 eggs, then they let them go back to get the rest.
I liked that they made sure no one got left out.


We have our egg hunt at church tomorrow evening.
We're looking SO forward to that one too.

We colored eggs here at the house last night.

Leila LOVED it.

At one point, she got just a little wild with dipping an egg and the dye splashed up, so she had bright pink splatters all over her face the rest of the night.
We did a dozen eggs, and she was so proud of them.

I put them in her basket, and put it on the fireplace hearth.
When I got up this morning .... all but 2 eggs were gone!
There were only a few remnants of a shell left.
The blasted dog ate them!!!
I had to go buy more eggs today, because all of our eggs are 'homemade' (you know, brown eggs from my aunt's chickens).
And we did it again tonight.

Darrell missed it tonight though.
He's at a track meet.
He texted me, and he did okay, but not great in the mile and the 800.
But his relay team got 2nd place!