Easter 2018

Easter

This year Easter, April Fools Day, and General Conference were all at the same time. It was crazy. I don't care about April Fools Day but trying to combine General Conference and Easter was a little tricky. I like Easter later in April when the weather is nice and it feels more Eastery. I thought that the kids were going to have their Easter Egg Hunt in the snow this year. We were all gathering at the lake to celebrate Easter. Stacey, Kelley, and I slept over at our Mom's house the weekend before Easter and there was still a lot of snow on the ground and ice on the lake. But in a week's time the snow had pretty much melted and the ice had too.

Reilly slept over at our house the night before Easter. It is always so nice when all of our kids are sleeping under one roof. I sleep like a baby!! It was fun to have her come over and we all stayed up late chatting. The next morning we were on a tight schedule though with Easter, Conference, and the lake.

First up Easter Baskets:

Reilly was there too but I will defer to her wishes of not having an early morning picture on the blog. 

Kam slightly blurred ;)

We had a little Easter devotional. We sang He is Risen, prayed, and talked about what happened on the first Easter morning. We had been following along with Holy Week so it was a nice conclusion. Then we cranked The Lamb of God soundtrack by Rob Gardner and went to work making breakfast before Conference started.

Everyone pitched in and helped with breakfast. It was so fun to cook with everyone in the kitchen!! Literally everyone was doing something...Tyler was cranking out the crepes, Reilly was cutting all the strawberries, Kam was cooking the kielbasa, Ailey was cooking the vegetarian sausage, I was making whipped cream, and Bryn was setting out all of the supplies: plates, napkins, Nutella, powdered sugar, and chocolate milk. We worked together like a well oiled machine.

Breakfast was prepped and ready before the first strains of the music from conference started playing. Everyone had their blankets, pillows, and areas all set up to eat and watch the first session of conference.

Yum!!

It was so great to hear from our new President of the Church and Prophet...Russell M. Nelson. He is amazing and this whole conference was very exciting to say the least! So many new changes and I can't wait to see how it all works out!

After the first session was over we hurried and got ready, loaded up the car, and headed out to the lake to meet up with family. My mom hosted all of us, Stacey and John and their family, Kelley, Chris, and Elle, and my Uncle Steve and Aunt Margaret. Also Reilly's boyfriend, Hunter, came out too.

We put him to work being our family photographer! Ha ha!

We had a delicious feast of ham, baked beans, potato salad, jello jigglers, homemade bread, asparagus, deviled eggs, green punch, and three different kinds of cake.

Kids Table: Ailey, Elle, Bryn, River, and Dane

Chris and Kelley

Mom, Aunt Margaret, Stacey, and Kelley

Stacey and John brought out their new puppy, Dulce, and the Johnson girls got to rent-a-pet for the day!

After dinner it was time for the Easter Egg Hunt...our number of hunters is dwindling. Only three this year: River, Elle, and Bryn. Ailey and Dane both turned thirteen this year and have moved up to being a hider. Ailey was VERY excited about this! That was until they realized that they didn't get candy or money. :) Weirdly, Reilly and Kameron (our usual hiders) have never once complained or mentioned that fact. Tough old birds.

The newest hiders... Dane and Ailey

The Hunters: Bryn, Elle, and River

Lined up and ready to go according to age...Bryn is the youngest by two weeks!

Cousins: Kameron, Reilly, River, Bryn, Elle, Dane, and Ailey. (Missing: Kaiden, Kaiya, Kirin, Jaylah, and RJ.)

Then it was time for the most anticipated event... The Easter Egg Toss:

This event used to require a great deal of courage. That's why it is only for adults 18 and up. If you couldn't take Granny's heat you didn't get to throw. This event made her extremely angry because we would toss those eggs right into the lake for good luck. Sometimes one of those eggs would make a reappearance in the summer. Even better!! This used to INFURIATE our grandmother and we had to hide from her to do this. Even in her final years and completely blind she could always sense what was happening and would yell in an angry rage, "THEY BETTER NOT BE THROWING THOSE EGGS IN THE LAKE!!!!" And...we always were!!

Reilly won the distance contest. Clearly I won for form. Ha ha!! Stacey lost for premature-egg-jaculation. She tossed hers before the contest even started!! What the heck??

Then it was back inside for a quadruple birthday celebration:

We celebrated the birthdays of: Stacey, Kelley, Elle, and Bryn

Stacey and Kelley have birthdays the first part of March. Stacey turned 43 and Kelley turned 41.

Elle's birthday is the last week of March and Bryn's is two weeks after that. They were super excited to have a unicorn cake!! How are these babies of ours already turning NINE??

The wind was whipping and it was freezing cold but Bryn and River were still out fishing!!

Then it was back to our house. Reilly was spending another night. Yahoo! We got all of our blankets and pillows and watched the last session of conference. WOWZA!! So many changes!! Very exciting. Spring break started the very next day. It doesn't get much better than that!!

We had a wonderful Easter and hope that you did too!!

Happy Easter!!

March: Things I am Loving

1.) Organizing my books into specific custom shelves on Goodreads.

This is nerdy I know. But you cannot imagine the joy and satisfaction that I have had organizing my books on Goodreads. The joy is real!! Goodreads is my 2nd favorite app right after Instagram and I spend a lot of time on Goodreads.

2.) Getting outside again.

The snow has finally melted. The weather is still terrible...cold, rainy, and windy...but I am out and about in the fresh air once again. I go completely stir crazy during the winter.

3.) Passion fruit Red Bull Italian Sodas

This has been my drink of choice this month when I need a REAL pick-me-up.

4.) Greek Food

There is a new Greek place in Coeur d' Alene that has AMAZING gyros for only FIVE BUCKS!! Fast, casual, and cheap Greek food is unheard of here...until recently. We have been in withdrawal ever since we moved from Salt Lake sixteen years ago. Do not get in our way at the SLC airport!! They have a Greek Souvlaki place and we will mow you down in the airport to get a gyro before our connecting flight!!

5.) Russell Stover Coconut Clusters.

I am not a Russell Stover chocolates fan. I am a Mrs. Sees chocolate fan...but... Tyler's boss gave him a box of Coconut Clusters one day and Tyler brought it home for the family.  Those coconut clusters were delicious!!

March 2018

March came in like the proverbial lion this year...and it still isn't lamb-like weather. When I say that I am ready for spring what I really mean is that I am ready for summer. Warm weather. Sunshine. Bring it on. That didn't happen in March.

We started the month off with Tyler and I having a fun night downtown with Kameron. We had tickets to see Kameron's best friend, Jonathan, perform in the lead role of Tarzan, at the Bing Crosby Theater. He did a fantastic job!! We started the night out with dinner at a new restaurant ... Incrediburgers. It was pretty good. They have all kinds of *interesting* gourmet burgers and shakes. I got the Thai burger that had peanut sauce and other Thai style ingredients on it. It was good. I am not a big cheeseburger person so I don't know that I am really in a hurry to return.  Kam got a Nutella shake that was delicious and Tyler and I split at a caramel corn shake which wasn't.

Jonathan's mom, Susie, got us front row seats. We love Jonathan's parents and the fact that these cute boys have been such good friends since 1st grade.

Jonathan was, of course, fantastic!! That kid has been growing his hair out for over a year and then got extensions that were made into dreads and went to school like that for WEEKS! Ha ha! That is dedication to your craft. It was a fun night!!

Reilly has a new boyfriend...his name is Hunter. He is very nice. Reilly has brought him around quite a bit this month. He has been to all kinds of performances and family events. He even helped break down from my last vintage show and lugged furniture and bins. He is a country boy and wants to go into ranching. He currently works on his uncle's ranch. It has been quite amusing to see our glamour girl, Reilly, go country. Country Reilly is quite enjoyable to watch!! ;)

Ailey has had a whole bunch of drill team performances and a big showcase night. I wish that I could post them on the blog but the Internet is full of wackos and I can't cover up all the uniform logos. But take my word for it. She did a great job and has been a wonderful drill team captain. She has done a bunch of the choreographing and has been awesome with the girls!! We have loved watching her perform!

Hunter doesn't have any sisters so it has been a whole new world hanging out at drill team showcase nights and things like that but he has been a good sport!

Bryn started Bloomsday Training at her elementary school which is basically track. Bloomsday is a 12K race here and all the elementary schools start training in the spring. Bryn was SO EXCITED to get back to running. I cannot relate to this at all!! I like working out but I loathe running. Bryn starts track today on her city team. So she will be doing that as well.

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day:

Bryn set up a very elaborate leprechaun trap the night before.

St. Patrick's Day was on a Saturday this year so no green lunches but we did get shamrock shakes and then had our family dinner on Sunday. It is awesome to have Reilly back in town for holidays both big and small!

We celebrated heartily considering that my DNA proved last year that I am Irish!! As for Tyler, one of the heartiest St. Paddy's Day celebrators...the jury is still out. Ha ha!

But he bought his DNA kit and sent it in so in a few short weeks we will find out not only if he has any Irish blood but also if he is indeed the Bad-A Viking that he claims to be!! :)

Tyler and I got free tickets to attend a special prescreening for the movie Ready Player One which happens to be one of our very favorite books so we were excited to see the movie. The plot was changed here and there but it was still good and we loved seeing the book come to life on the big screen.

We had a great event happen in our ward. The young man on the left in white is named Tyler and he started taking the discussions about a year ago and began coming to church regularly and attending seminary. He is a year older than Kam. Kameron and his friend Josh...the one on the right...have had a great opportunity to fellowship and become friends with Tyler. They sat in on missionary discussions, worked with the missionaries, and took part in this young man's decision to be baptized. It has been wonderful to watch. Great prep for both Kam and Josh as future missionaries. Josh baptized Tyler and Tyler asked Kameron to speak at his baptism. Kam spoke about the Holy Ghost and just did a fantastic job!! I am so proud of both of these boys for being such great friends and so welcoming and loving to this new young man in our ward.

The kids taking turns to cook Sunday dinner once a month is still in full swing and that means that sometimes Tyler and I get a Sunday nap!! Love it! That is one of the perks of early church...especially those days when I have to be at ward council at 7am. Not a fan. This month it was Ailey's turn to cook and she decided to make breakfast for dinner. She did an amazing job!! She made homemade waffles, homemade buttermilk syrup, two kinds of sausage (kielbasa and vegetarian), and tator tots. Ha ha! True to her word not one vegetable was on the menu!!

It was a delicious meal!! Thanks Ailey!!

Kameron had his Spring Band Concert! 

He did fantastic!!

Stacey and I were vendors at the Rebel Junk Vintage Market in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho this month. It was our first show of 2018.

Here we are on set-up day. We had a double booth space again with our checkout in the middle like we did last year. We added some pops of color for Spring and had some cute Easter decor for this show.

Show Day and back in the swing of things. Show season is under way!! We also ended up having a sisters sleepover at my mom's house after the show. My sister, Kelley, even joined us.

The day before the show this poor kid got left at school. I TOTALLY forgot to pick her up!! The school called me a half an hour after school was over to see if I was ever coming to get her!! I felt terrible. In my defense...I thought she had Bloomsday training that day...she was in her running clothes and had me do her hair in a ponytail...but nope...just a regular day. Things were also just a tad crazy getting prepped for the Rebel Junk Market and CLEARLY my mind was on other things. So...when your mom forgets you at school you get FROYO!! Bryn was a trooper. I have now forgotten all of my children once. I am an equal opportunity forgetter. When we got home Ailey opened the door and yelled, "Welcome to the Forgotten-By-Mom-Club!!" They never forget! Ha ha. They are lucky it has only happened once!!

We also had parent/teacher conference for Bryn. Her teacher Mr. O tried his hardest to talk us into having more kids!! Ha ha!! He is having a hard time believing that there are no more Johnsons to come through his class. The end of an era. Bryn is doing absolutely fantastic and Mr. O said that she just spreads joy and happiness throughout his classroom. He said that students like Bryn are the reason that he enjoys teaching and has done it for so many years. You can't get higher praise than that! It is wonderful as a parent to hear that your kids are nice kids!!

The school walkout happened this month. Ailey walked out and Kameron did not. Both of them had excellent and well-thought out reasons for why they did or did not walk out and Tyler and I proudly supported both of their decisions. They are super smart, thoughtful, and savvy kids. They both have strong opinions and thoughts on the matter and ideas about what needs to be done to protect students and since they are the ones who go to school every day not knowing if they will return home... I feel that both of their opinions on how to deal with school violence are to be applauded and respected.

Kameron and several of his friends stayed in school and had a great conversation with their teacher during the walkout. She contacted me to say how impressed she was with Kam. Ailey walked out and marched down the street with her principal by her side. We love these passionate and articulate kids of ours!! As a parent I want to bang some heads together until our children start being protected!!! I cannot even imagine going to school under the circumstances that they do!! It enrages and frustrates me completely.

What else happened this month? Ailey and Bryn both sang in church. Ailey sang with the YW and Bryn sang with the Primary. The Primary kids sang the song I Will Be What I Believe which has me in a puddle of tears every time I hear it...which was multiple times every Sunday!!

You can watch it here:

Try not to cry!!

Ailey is also involved with the Road Show and is busy with practices. Kameron took the SAT. I had a fun lunch with a dear friend. I was also asked to be a speaker at a RS activity. I was asked to speak about parenting particularly about helping teens and young adults to get the most out of General Conference. I'll post my thoughts later. I had book club and we read the book Murder on the Orient Express this month. Not my favorite book although I did watch the movie after I read the book and thought the movie was better. What?! That's like the second time this has happened this year!!

Tyler and I also tried to chase the sun whenever we could...

Now April is here and we are STILL waiting for sunshine and warmer temps. Come on Spring!!