Easter/Conference/Grandpa's Birthday Extravaganza

Josh and I took the boys to go to my parents' home overnight in Utah for Easter at the beginning of April. It had been 2 years since we'd all been together as a Perkins family (due to the pandemic). It was also the momentous occasion when Easter and General Conference converge: those are my mom's favorite Easters when that happens.

We drove down on Saturday afternoon. We had planned to color Easter eggs when we arrived, our old tradition the boys always did with Grandma on the Saturday before Easter, but it didn't work out. Truth be told...I don't even remember what we did after we arrived. I'm getting old and forgetful, and there's no photos, and it happened 6 months ago, so I don't remember! 

On Sunday morning, the boys woke up and wore their church clothes to listen to conference from the convenience of my parents' living room. I was impressed with their commitment--but it doesn't look like they're too thrilled about it! ;)

I love listening to the Prophet of God speak!

That morning, the boys also found their Easter baskets--which were outside of Grandma's front porch. Each boy got some new frisbees for our disc golf course at home, some of their favorite flavored milk from Gossners, and some of their favorite snacks. It's getting both easier, and more boring, to gift them items at holidays!

After the morning session of conference ended, family members began showing up for the Easter festivities. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day outside (mom had been fretting about what to do with the Easter egg hunt if we couldn't be outdoors). Instead of eating the traditional meal of ham and potatoes, we had soups and salads, so people could eat whenever they showed up, which eased up a lot of mom's stress about making sure the meal was prepared for everyone at the same time. Since we haven't been all together for a couple of years, it was stressing mom out to suddenly make a large meal and have it prepared at the right time for everyone, when she didn't know when they would be arriving exactly, so although Easter was structured different this time, it was a lot more relaxing for mom, and I think it turned out just fine! 

I told everyone that I really, REALLY wanted to have a family photo. I was dismayed it didn't happen at Easter of 2019, and I was persistent about having it this time. Although everyone is not here in this photo, it represents our family getting back together again after the long pandemic! We are missing Lisa and her family, Cody and his family, and Ammon. I'm grateful that everyone complied with my request. I love having family photos to document our time together.

After the photo, we started the Easter egg hunt. It was a simplified hunt this year, which was just fine too! There were 2 gold and 2 silver eggs this time, and the kids got to hunt with the adults, which is a first I believe! Mom and Dad's new yard is a lot smaller than the old yard, so dad had to be creative when he hid the eggs. He did a good job! It was a fun hunt!

Gold Winners: Aspen and Jonah (his first time!)
Silver Winners: Mick and Sunny

After the egg hunt (and money exchange for the eggs we'd found), we had dad's birthday party. His 80th birthday was two days later, but we celebrated all together on Sunday. We had a family zoom meeting with Lisa and her family so that she was able to join us, too. I made a Kahoot for dad's birthday, just as I'd done one for mom's birthday in January when we were still having our monthly zoom family meetings. It was a trivia about some of his favorite things, from childhood to now. It was SO much fun, especially because we got to be together as we played. We all laughed and laughed! I made a few of the questions challenging, and although Tawna and Bryce had won my previous 2 family Kahoot games, mom came out victorious this time at the end!  

After the Kahoot game, Dad opened gifts and we ate cake and sang happy birthday to him. It was a memorable birthday; Dad said it was a special party with thoughtful gifts and he liked the fun Kahoot game. I'm glad we could celebrate it together.