Easter 2014

Easter morning, we got up and the boys found their Easter gifts on the dining table at Grandma's house: 

Micah's gifts

Jonah's presents

Kanyon's stash

Ammon's pile

I went to church at my old home ward with my mom and dad, and Josh brought the boys over to Sacrament Meeting. After the church services were over, we went back to my parents' house, and the rest of the family (that all live in Utah) started arriving.

Tawna & her fiance Bryce
wearing their funny Easter shirts.

Mick's wife Jen and their girls
wearing the Easter skirts she made

Trina & her fiance Dan with the decorative toothpicks
that are remnants of the tray of my mom's annual Easter
pickle-cheese-olive appetizers on a stick.   

I kept following Cody & BreAnne's son Brendan
around with my camera, and it kind of scared him!

When everyone was gathered together, the blessing was said on our Easter feast, and we all started to dish up the annual meal (which is always my favorite meal of the year!).

It was a beautiful day, so my mom set the table for the kids to eat outside on the back deck.

After the delicious ham & potato lunch, we went out in the front yard for the kids' Easter egg hunt.

And away they go! They were allowed to each pick up 10 eggs.

And then they hunted for the kids' golden egg (worth $5).

Jonah came out the victorious winner! (again!)

We took a break in between the kids' and adult egg hunts to have a family religious service. We told the story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ through scriptures and symbolic items that are placed inside a set of numbered eggs that my mom has.

Then it was time for the adult Easter egg hunt in the back yard. 

I have NO idea what they're all looking at,
but I think it's funny that nobody's looking at the picture here!

This is the starting line, so that everybody starts at the same time...

Except this year, my mom let Cody have a head start because he is supposedly the only sibling who has never found a golden egg before...

The adults, like the kids, could each pick up 10 eggs, and then we searched for the elusive $10 Silver egg and the $20 Gold egg hidden somewhere in the backyard.

I like this photo of all the tall guys wandering total different directions!

Some of the ladies are combing the fenceline looking for the top eggs!

My dad got a kick out of watching us adults frantically search for the coveted eggs!

My mom made a rule that when the kids turn 13, they can join the adult hunt.
So that included both Ammon AND Aspen this year!

And Aspen found the Silver Egg in her first adult hunt, which she was so excited about!

Cody ended up finding the golden egg! (So no more head starts for him next year!!)

We all went back inside and tallied up our egg totals (each egg is numbered and is correlated to a certain money amount). It's so wonderful that my parents host and organize this event each year to bring us all together for a day of celebration and fun!

We ate desserts (and there were plenty of good choices! yum!), and then everyone began leaving. Although we were all only together for a few short hours, it was a very pleasant Easter Sunday, and I'm so glad that everyone was able to join us this year. We said our good-byes, and Josh and I headed back home to Salmon that night. It was a short trip to Utah, but a good one with happy memories with my family.

seek, then ye shall dye

Our Easter festivities began on Saturday, April 19. That morning began with the Salmon Easter Egg Hunt at the City Park. This year, Kanyon was in the same age category as Jonah and Micah (7-10 year olds), and their area was fairly large. We picked spots behind taped-off ribbon around the area, and when it was 10:00, all the big kids went sprinting around the grass picking up eggs and then all the candy that was covering the grass.

The boys came out of that 5-minute spree with buckets FULL of candy and eggs. It was awesome! We are so grateful to the Rotary for hosting this event!

Inside the plastic eggs are money or coupons for free items or tickets to receive money at local merchants' businesses. The boys opened all their eggs to see what goodies lay inside. They were so happy to see that they'd all received several dollars!

After the city egg hunt, we headed over to the church's stake primary activity. The theme was "Forever Families". Our Stake Primary President is so organized and fun and comes up with awesome activities for our youth. They had a great time at all the different stations and having snacks. The boys liked this maze of boxes/obstacle course in the middle of the church gym that led to the temple! They came away with bags full of goodies, too! 

When the activity was over, we picked up the boys and headed to my mom's house in Utah. My mom was prepared with items for her annual event of dying eggs with my boys. They look forward to it every year. I appreciate that my mom is always willing to get extra items to make it a fun and new and creative experience for them. 

Grandma tying the egg apron on Kanyon

Initially, Ammon said he was not interested in dying eggs with his brothers. But, after seeing all the fun they were having with Grandma, he decided to join in, too.

I like seeing the different styles of my 4 sons' eggs. These are Ammon's eggs (all practically identical!):

Micah has really had an artistic outlet recently. These are some of his colorful creations:

 
Jonah used a variety of decorations: stickers, markers, wax:

These are Kanyon's eggs. His favorite part is the dying process. He could care less about stickers!

Josh and I went shopping that night and my mom put the boys to bed for us, which was so thoughtful of her. Our first day of Easter festivities had been a fun and successful one!

Tee Time

Ammon opted to not join the junior high track team this year. He likes running long distance, but he doesn't like running around the track over and over again. So, instead, he chose to play golf this spring. There isn't a jr. high golf team, but he and one other 8th grade classmate Creed practiced after school every day this spring with the high school team. Because he competes in golf tournaments around eastern Idaho every summer, we thought it would be good practice for him, so we were supportive of his decision to be involved in a sport he likes rather than just doing a sport because all of his friends are doing it (like track), even if that meant that he couldn't compete with the high school team. There was one home tournament, however, in Salmon in mid-April that the coach did allow Ammon and Creed to join in playing, for which we were so grateful. They played with the high school J.V. team to compete against another school.  

Josh took us (me, his dad Ed & his mom Kathy) around the course on a golf cart to watch him compete. It was the first time I'd seen the Salmon Valley Golf Course this year. Josh does such an awesome job maintaining it! I love seeing the work he produces! It was an 18-hole tournament (which lasts for hours), so we limited our time to watching Ammon on just 3 of the holes. Golf is a peaceful sport to watch, and I enjoyed seeing him play against others. He is such a good golfer and he really enjoys it, but he struggles with the mental part of competition. He didn't do his best that day, which really frustrated him, but I'm glad that he's getting more practice with competing--this will help him with his summer tournaments and also when he's part of the future high school golf team next year. 

Chipping the ball up onto the 8th green.

Waiting for his competitors to putt their balls into the 8th hole.

Teeing off on hole #9.

Hitting the ball on the long 9th fairway.

Putting the ball into the 9th green.

Teeing off on hole #1. 

Two weeks ago, the high school golf team competed at state and WON!! It was the first time that Salmon has brought home a State Championship title in the game of golf. Several of the players will be returning next year, and it's exciting that Ammon will be part of a championship team his freshman year!

All in White

Except for my husband Josh, Amanda is my very best friend in the whole world. She understands me, and we laugh a lot together (we've cried occasionally too), and I love her so much. I was so happy to be there when she went to the temple in Idaho Falls with her family for the first time at the end of March. It was an amazing moment watching her family make promises to each other and God. I'm so grateful that families can be together forever!

2 Ball Handlers & 1 Little Grappler

There were a few firsts with winter sports at our house this year. Jonah and Micah played Jamboree Basketball for their first time, and they were glad they did because they both liked it! They practiced twice a week for 6 weeks with about 25 other boys their age. The last week of practice, they played scrimmages with each other and the boys really liked that part. 

Kanyon tried wrestling for the first time this year, too. Some of his friends joined the sport as well, which he was glad for so that during practices he could wrestle with his buddies. It was a fairly short season, only about 5 weeks, and he had practices twice a week. There were only 3 practices before his first meet, though, and he wasn't quite ready for the fierce competition! The first meet was Saturday March 8 in Darby. It was a huge meet with a lot of teams from Montana squeezing into a small gym, but it was very well organized.

He was a good defensive wrestler, though, and he stayed strong both physically and mentally in his first matches. He had two matches at the first meet, both of which he lost, but he never got pinned and Josh and I were so proud of the way he fought hard and handled himself.

Here's a video of one of the matches at his first meet:

We had left home early that morning (about 7am) to get to that first meet in Darby Montana by 9:00am. After being up early and wrestling so hard that day, it took its toll on Kanyon, and he slept almost the whole way home!

He even slept through a stop we had to make on the highway for an avalanche clean-up!

The following Saturday, we had to leave at 5:30am to make it to the meet in Victor Montana for weigh-in at 8:30. This time, the meet wasn't as large, and the gym was bigger, but it wasn't organized as well as the previous week. Kanyon had two matches again in the 55 weight category. He was able to score more points and lessen the gap between what his opponents scored and himself. He never got pinned at this meet, but he was unable to win any of the matches. Josh and I were so impressed with his defensive wrestling abilities and we were so proud of him for his good sportsmanship and for remaining so calm.

The next tournament he was in was a week and a half later during Spring Break week at the end of March. This time, the meet was in Salmon on Wednesday evening the 26th (the night after we got home from our spring vacation) against the Challis Idaho team. Josh and I were unable to go because we were in Idaho Falls at the temple with our friend Amanda as she went through for the first time. So, Grandpa Tolman took Kanyon to the meet and Ammon, Jonah, and Micah went to watch and support him, too. The kids from Challis are extremely competitive wrestlers, and unfortunately, Kanyon got pinned for the first time that night. It really upset him, and he said he didn't want to do wrestling anymore after that. So even though there were two more practices and one more meet after that, he didn't go to any more of them. 

Josh and I both think that Kanyon has some potential to be a great wrestler. I don't know if he'll do it again next year or not, but I'm proud of him for trying a new sport and putting his whole effort into being the best he could be at it!