Easter 2014

Easter 

Easter morning dawned absolutely beautiful!! It was gorgeous and spring-like. It was a perfect day to think about the Savior's Glorious Resurrection. We have early church so we got up EXTRA early to have to a little Easter devotional and to see what the Easter Bunny brought...lots of candy and some new Easter outfits.

Church was wonderful and both Reilly and Tyler sang in our ward choir musical number which was fun. We all had a great day remembering the reason we celebrate Easter and why it is such a special holiday. If you are one of the VERY FEW people who haven't seen this video...watch it...you will love it!! I promise...regardless of your religious persuasion.




After Church we came home, grabbed our cooler full of potato salad and green punch fixings and headed out to the lake to celebrate with family. We had such a fun time!! The weather was gorgeous, the ice was all gone, and the sun was shining on the water. Perfection.

See!! I am so excited for summer I can hardly stand it.

Speaking of being excited...there were some very excited kids who could barely contain themselves for the Easter Egg Hunt. Reilly ended up being called into work...I know...teenagers working can be such a pain!! Anyway, I think it turned out okay for her. The assisted living facility that she works at is very upscale. They had quite a grand feast and buffet. Most of the residents families came and they had an Easter Egg Hunt. The residents love to introduce Reilly to their families and for those that didn't have family come Reilly was an honorary grand daughter. One of the personality traits that I love the most about Reilly is that she can make anything fun. She gets right into whatever is going on and her enthusiasm and infectious laugh makes the most mundane things enjoyable. The girl has me laughing until I am crying at least once nearly every day. So, I think having her there on Easter kicked things up a notch for those residents. The place that she works at did the cutest thing for those residents... the night before Easter all the little old people put out their Easter baskets and that night all the staff filled them with fun surprises and treats. It was so cute seeing all those Easter baskets sitting out waiting for the Easter Bunny. Reilly also said that the residents participated in the Easter Egg Hunt along with the little kids who were visiting. The staff hid all the eggs and Reilly said that the residents were having so much fun and were just as into it as the little kids were. Life really is a circle. So cute.

Anyway, I digress...back to the excited kids at the lake.

Elle doesn't look excited but believe me...she was!!

The eggs were hidden by the dads and our two resident middle schoolers...Grace and Kam. They did a superb job!! They are looking so grown-up. I swear they were just toddlers.

Such cuties!!

And then the hunt began and chaos ensued...

Cute Paige checking out all the action from inside...safe from being trampled.

Bryn was sweet enough to pause from the fray for a quick picture for mommy. Yes, she is wearing a life jacket. That girl is drawn to the water like a magnet. I want another round or two of swim lessons before I dare let my waterbaby out of my sight with the siren call of the lake nearby.

Ailey was not sweet to pose for me. This was her annoyed attempt at a ...well... she claimed it was a smile...more like an irritated face at being stopped in her quest for EGGS!! The golden egg still hadn't been found!! How could I be so RUDE??

She did stop to pose with Haylee but the strain of the endeavor was still there. Check out that neck vain?! Veruca wants her GOLDEN EGG!! (There was cash in it people!!)

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No more stress...the Golden Egg was found by River in a nefarious manner...cough...John Sykes!!

We will pose for you!! No worries.

Uncle Steve

We said, "Look cool Uncle Steve!!" I think he pulled it off. Ha ha.

As exciting as it was to find this hidden in the grass...

It was NOTHING compared to finding these hidden in the grass...

Kittens!!

The Mommas

The pictures were being taken by the daddies

A glorious Easter tradition was upheld by the adults and teenagers of the family. Someone had issues (no, surprisingly it wasn't me!!) and someone was the hero.

First dip of the year for a Johnson...although no bragging rights...Gavin was the first one in the lake this year. Yay Gavin!! That is pretty awesome. Way to go!!

Happy Easter!!

Spring Break 2014

Spring Break

Spring Break this year was wonderful. We actually had spring-like weather. I know. It's a fluke but it was a fantastic fluke. Lucky for us we were here to enjoy it. We took our quasi-spring break early in March when the whole family went to Utah. I think I might do that every year. We were actually able to relax and had a nice "break".

I am baffled by the amount of people I talked to and read about on Facebook who were madly trying to pack as many activities into their spring break as possible...especially if they were staying in town. Why people? Why? Aren't your lives busy enough as it is when you aren't on spring break? Mine is. It's crazy busy. Every single week night we have at least one person, if not two people, gone participating in something. Even Saturday usually has three people who have activities that are regularly scheduled and that's not counting non-regular fun activities. Sunday is our calmest day and that is after three hours of church and occasional meetings. I guess we were in the minority but we, Johnsons, just wanted A BREAK. No classes, sports, lessons. It was delightful. We still did a few fun things here and there, hung out with friends, but it was all spontaneous and it was wonderful. We slept in, worked out, played outside, organized, read books, watched movies, and did nothing. Perfect.

One of the fun things that we did was go on our first hike of the year. Bryn has always been a good hiker but this year she can really hike for a long time and did not need a piggy back. Hooray. In fact, she ran...yes ran...up most of the trail. We hiked up to the Rocks of Sharon which is a great family friendly hike and we had a fantastic time.

The video to prove it.

Spring break gave us a nice taste of summer to come and we can't wait.

She's Five!!

Bryn's Birthday Extravaganza

The baby of our family is already five!! How did that happen so fast? It's making me a little sad. Tyler and I both had a to take a moment in Old Navy as we realized that Bryn no longer wears clothes in the toddler section. We literally paused and had a moment of pain as we realized that we don't have a toddler anymore and had to go shop in the little girls section. Ouch. Then we realized that the next time we shop in the toddler section it will be for our grandchildren. Swift kick to the gut. But despite our moments of midlife crises, which seem to be happening all too frequently these days, our girl had a grand celebration.

Daddy kicked things off early in the morning with balloons and donuts!! It was Spring break so she didn't have school that day and got to bring treats to preschool this week instead.

Bryn has had her birthday all planned out for months, she has regaled me with these said plans every day for months, and we made all her plans come true. She wanted to go out to lunch with Mommy and Daddy to Zip's and have a fish sandwich, french fries, and a milkshake. Done.

She wanted to wear her purple party dress that Grandma Vic gave her last year for her birthday. She did. She has worn that party dress to every party she has attended for the last year. Ha ha.

Then that day everyone else had a bunch of other things going on so we couldn't do her big activities that day. Bryn requested a "Downtown Birthday" so that had to wait until Saturday but she had a great day playing and having fun. She requested a cherry cheesecake pie for her birthday. Done.

Finally Saturday rolled around and Bryn was so excited that she could barely contain herself. The first item of business for her downtown birthday was going to the movies to see "Mr. Peabody and Sherman".

I tried not to be totally obnoxious in the movie theater with my picture taking...so this is as good as it gets. Morning matinees are the best!!

Birthday request #2 was playing and riding the rides at Riverfront Park. Done. It was a gorgeous day for April in Spokane.

I love my town!!

Bryn wanted to ride the carousel. So we did. Many times.

Out of all the beautiful horses to ride, what did this girl run to as fast as she could and hopped on? THE GOAT!!

See? Her vocal enthusiasm for that goat caused other kids to think that perhaps there was something extra special about that goat and it caused other kids to sprint for it themselves. Such a trendsetter.

Ailey, on the other hand, deliberates and deliberates about what horse it truly the most beautiful as she walks around and around trying to make her selection and nearly misses getting a horse (they fill up fast) before the ride begins. This one was her favorite.

Kameron usually just gets whatever horse is left due to chasing Ailey down and yelling at her to "just pick a horse and get on!!" This time he he lucked out got the Warhorse which is my particular favorite from childhood...and a family favorite.

Then it was off to the more exciting rides. This year Bryn was old enough to ride the infamous Spider. She was bound and determined to be like the big kids.

She rode with Reilly and hated it. I said, "Didn't you even like it a little bit?" Her reply, "I had joy for one tiny minute." Ha ha. This kid kills me.

After riding rides and playing at the big wagon we walked over to the restaurant Bryn had picked for dinner. Azteca...a mexican restaurant. All she wanted was to wear that Sombrero and she wanted to wear it BAD!!

I tried not to be totally skeeved out by how many kids have had that on their heads. But Bryn loved it and loved being sung to by the staff. Someone has a slightly large head and that sombrero barely perched on top but that didn't lessen her joy!

Then it was there that we found out Reilly had taken a babysitting job, without informing us, and it was due to start in an hour and a half. (This was after she had taken the day/night off from her work to hang out with the family.) Tyler was happy to give her another chance to enjoy our city bus system. She was less than enthused.

Buh-bye!

We continued on with Bryn's day of fun by walking all over downtown, went back to the park, and then over to our favorite place...Sweet Frostings!!

This is one of Bryn's very favorite places in the world. She loves my friend, Judy, who is one of owners. Unfortunately Judy wasn't there that day and Bryn was very sad about that but she quickly perked up as she picked out her cupcakes.

Then it was back home for presents and cupcakes. When we got home we found a very sweet note from Reilly apologizing to Bryn for leaving her downtown birthday party early and she had made up a cute scavenger hunt for Bryn to find her birthday presents from Reilly.

All was forgiven...Reilly even threw in a sister date for pedicures. Bryn was thrilled!!

Such cute sisters!! I love this.

She was super stoked to get her own pink razor scooter. Now she can keep up with her big brother and sister.

Then it was cupcakes and bed for our exhausted but happy birthday girl. Bryn said that it was "Her best birthday EVER!!" and she wants to do the same thing next year. We sure love our little girl.

Happy Birthday Brynnie Kate!! 

We sure love you!!