Easter week

We had so much fun this past week! I have tons of pictures, but I'll just post a few to highlights the things we did. On Monday morning we headed to San Jose to spend a few days with my parents. We got there in time to visit my mom's work (she is an intake coordinator/activities planner for a Senior citizen's home) where we helped stuff Easter baskets with a few of the residents. From a young age, we have seen that Audrey is so compassionate when working with older people. She is patient with those that cannot hear very well, repeating herself or speaking clearly and a bit louder. She is not bothered by someone in a wheelchair or other medical "stuff" attached. She smiled and made eye contact with so many people while helping one woman named Anne sort candies into baggies. Violet and Isaac did a great job too as they helped fill eggs and stuff fake grass into baskets. After helping with that, my mom was off for the rest of the day, so we headed across town to see my parents' new house (well, new to them, built in the 30s), then a quick dinner, and back to their apartment. Tuesday we headed west (only a 45 minute drive) to Santa Cruz. We'd hoped to explore some tide pools but the tides weren't out as far as we'd hoped and it was quite windy and overcast. Cleaning our feet after a walk on the beach. Some of Isaac's treasures he found. Walkin' back to the car. Audrey has been studying California history, and with it, the missions. Although the original Santa Cruz mission was destroyed by an earthquake and fire in 1857, this replica was restored/built in 1931. There are actually two other missions closer to my parents' house...maybe next time we'll visit another! Local fare at Emily's Bakery for a late lunch! Enjoying the sun on the patio while eating our grilled cheese with bacon sandwiches, tomato basil soup, and grilled chicken panini! YUM! Couldn't forget to buy some muffins for breakfast the next morning...or for the ride home! We enjoyed a home-cooked meal that night and a movie before bed! Wednesday was a work day at the house. Randy and my dad had some scraping to do to get the antique windows to slide and lock well after the seller had slapped on a thick coat of paint before selling. The girls checkin' out the pull strings in the closets. The kids and I helped my mom in the backyard. As you can (kind of) see, the backyard is mostly brick, with a covered patio at the very back. They want to leave the brick patio and cool walkways around the garden area, but we pried up a bunch of bricks nearing the back fence. My parents hope to get some help tearing down the back cover soon too...it's practically falling over already. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the patio, a couple more hours of work, then headed to a park to let the kids play a while. We cleaned up, packed up, ate dinner with my parents at a good Chinese restaurant they've found in town, then headed back to Fresno. Thursday morning Randy took Violet on a daddy/daughter day (his Christmas present to her). They did a photo-shoot day as they went to Starbucks, a farm, the zoo, then Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Violet took some really good pictures...seriously! She and Randy are planning one more outing to shoot pictures and then they'll pick the best ones to develop and frame for a photo gallery at our house this summer. They are even thinking of putting the pictures in the show up for sale, adding the profits to the same project(s) Audrey is donating to as she runs with Randy (see Randy's blog for details). Randy told me not to post any pictures since we want people to come to the gallery and see her work. More info to come!

Friday was our church's annual Easter Egg-stravaganza in the morning, and in the evening we had a fantastic dinner with our friend, Myra (sorry, we were slackers in the picture-taking department that day)! Saturday was a relaxing day, yard work, reading, baking some paska and joining some friends for dinner. Then Randy headed to a ball game with some buddies and I stayed home preparing for Sunday morning service. I was asked to lead worship/singing at our church for Easter Sunday, and although I have led three other times this year, I was very nervous to lead on Easter. It all came together beautifully with the help of so many people praying for me, some very skilled musicians playing with me, wonderfully encouraging words from our church's pastors and the administrative help of the worship team assistant. I also was given some gorgeous pictures from my husband and my cousins to use as backgrounds for the words to the songs as they were up on the front screen. Here is the post on my cousins' blog with their pictures. I didn't get a chance on Sunday morning to thank them (as well as my husband)...so here is my HUGE thank you for sharing your gifts and talents to help us glorify God on Easter Sunday!!!

Since I knew that I would not sleep well (if hardly at all) the night before Easter, I told Randy that we could all go out to our church's Sunrise service. One of the couples in our church hosts a service at daybreak every Easter morning, complete with hymns, a devotional, paska bread (a traditional sweet egg bread from our Mennonite Eastern-European heritage), coffee, and, of course, the sunrise! Randy decided to get up at 4:45 and RUN to the Wall's home (over 11 miles). I woke up with the kids at 5:20 and headed out in the van. He actually beat us! Ready to start the service. Not a very good photo...but you get the idea. It was a gorgeous morning! Seeing as I was going to be so focused on leading the singing at the 11 o'clock service (which also includes me playing the guitar, by the way), it was great to sit, sing the hymns with gusto, and soak in the message from Matt while watching the sun rise!

After gathering with our church family once again at 11 a.m. for a wonderful service, we headed to Randy's mom's house for the rest of the day. Randy's mom did a fun scavenger hunt for the kids, using Bible verse clues, which led them to their Easter baskets. Here they are deciphering one of the clues. And another clue. We hope you all had a wonderful Easter, hopefully celebrating with friends and family, and rejoicing in the gift of salvation through our risen Savior, Jesus Christ! He is risen! He is risen indeed!