A Hoppy Easter

My sister Marianne and her cute kids Nathan and Aria got to come up for Easter weekend this year.  The kids were so thrilled to see their cousins and it was the perfect end to our spring break.  We had lots of fun dying easter eggs.

Beckett was determined to dye the eggs himself which resulted in several cracked eggs and several cases of him drinking the dye(gross!!) but we managed to preserve enough for the yearly egg rolling contest.

Nathan and Carter put on a star wars type of "fight show" for our entertainment.

The girls put together some awesome songs with dances to go along with them for their show.  The kids had constant playing and cousin fun to keep them entertained.  Garrett even set up our enormous three room tent in the basement for the kids to all sleep in which was a big hit.

The egg rolling contest was as intense as ever!

It started out girls vs boys and as the rounds narrowed down it ended up being the Halls vs the Portland visitors!

The final showdown was between Rylynn and Marianne's boyfriend Brian.

Rylynn represented and came out victorious for the Halls!  Can you tell by her mid air celebrations how excited she was?:)

Then we ran out the door to the annual tri-ward egg hunt they do here.  Three families in our stake open up their land which is over 5 acres and hide 5000 eggs each year.  I took Beckett over to the 4 and under area and he was in heaven.

I finally had to make him stop when his eggs kept overflowing out of his basket.  The bigger kids had a great time too.  Nathan kept searching for like 2 hours for the coveted camo eggs but sadly, did not prevail.  There is a bbq and potluck too and the weather was beautiful so it was lots of fun.

We came home to discover that the Easter bunny had been to our house and the kids got to do yet another hunt in the backyard.

The bunny was very creative this year and even used the trampoline to hide eggs:)

Everyone came out with far too much candy which amounts to very happy and hyper children.  At least my first born is very in tune with her sensitive stomach and know when to stop!  She is very responsible about candy intake but unfortunately that means that she is the only one who has any candy left throughout the week so she ends up doing a lot of sharing with her little brothers.

This little one has no will power whatsoever and his basket gets hidden everyday.  

Carter and Nathan were happy to empty their eggs and admire their loot.  Unfortunately, we have no pictures of the most important part of Easter which was on Sunday.  We went to church and I was able to do my favorite thing and sing in the choir.  The talks were wonderful and the songs were beautiful.  Then after church we had the yearly delicious lamb roast and feast.  Marianne did her tradition of teaching the kids the passover and how it relates to our Easter celebration.  The day was wonderful and it was a very tearful goodbye when it was time to part ways.  Carter even tried to stow away in Marianne's car, but we discovered him before it was too late!