A Fun Family Easter/Birthday Celebration

We had a quiet family Easter this year.  As is our tradition, we colored three dozen eggs, one dozen for each child at home.  Yes, there was a time when we did six dozen at a time.  :)  

Here is the crew busily working on those eggs

Our creations for this year

Evan found one

Megan (always thrilled to get her picture taken first thing in the morning)

Speaking of thrilled.....

Not really sure what that face means, but the flowers look pretty :)

Ginny getting some foot loves

Time for the baskets

Colorful socks

We found them all

After church we usually do a big egg hunt outside with plastic eggs.  Sometimes we have Kaci and Nikki here, but they were  at their Dad's house this year, so Evan was the lone hunter.  Meg and Nate hid 100 eggs and as of this date, he has found 97 of them  :)  Those last few have been a little too tricky!

Grandma Found has a birthday on April 4th.  Since she was preparing to travel to Arizona and would be gone on her birthday, we celebrated with her on Easter, too.

Happy 79th, Grandma Foulk!!!

Celebrating 30 Years.....St. Thomas

Although our 30th wedding anniversary is not until April 23rd, we decided to take an earlier trip because we would be in Provo for Geoffrey's graduation at that time.  Steve really wanted to go to Hawaii since we have yet to go there, but it just seemed too rushed to do such a big trip.  So we got on the computer and started looking at the Caribbean.  We decided to try St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.  We had such a relaxing and beautiful time there and got to swim and snorkel in some amazing blue water.  Here are some of our photos from the trip.

Steve looking out over the water on our first night there

Later that night on the beach with the sunset in the background....Spectacular!!

Our second day we took a ferry over to the neighboring island of St. Johns.  The beaches there were especially beautiful and since more than half of the island is national park, the scenery was amazing.

Steve on a beach on St. Johns

There were trees all along the beach which was very handy for shade, hanging up your wet towels, etc. We weren't swimming this day, so we just did a little wading.

The view from off one of the roads on the northern side of St. Johns

We visited the remains of an old sugar plantation on St. Johns.  It dates back to the mid 19th century.

Steve at one of the ruins we visited on the island

More photos of the sugar plantation

Close-up of one of the rocks used in the construction of the plantation buildings.  This one appears to be some kind of coral.

Steve thought this big plant was cool looking....no idea what it is  :)

This lovely shot was taken at a place where they have hundreds of carvings made of ice.  We had spent the morning in Charlotte Amalie (capital of the USVI) and were so hot and tired.  This was the perfect place to spend a half hour or so.  We were new people after our little visit to the arctic.  :)

Me on King Triton's throne

Steve on the igloo slide

A Lutheran church that we visited in Charlotte Amalie

The 99 Steps

Blackbeard's Castle

Magen's Bay

Steve at Magen's Bay

We took a catamaran snorkeling trip to Buck Island where we swam with turtles and fish.  The snorkeling was amazing and the crew and boat were a lot of fun, too

A view of the sail aboard The Cat (our catamaran)

Coming back into the dock - Our first place we stayed - Marriott's Frenchman's Reef  Resort

We saw lots of iguanas on the island

Ready for church on Sunday

(funny story- After getting our picture taken, a young guy came up to us and asked us if we were, by any chance going to church - a Mormon church?  We told him we were and then proceeded to give him, his wife and baby daughter a ride to church.   They were on Spring break from MIT Business School in Boston.  We also discovered that he had served a mission in the Vladivostok Russia Mission and  was there at the same time my parents were in the Novosibirsk Russia Mission.  Always a small world in the church.)

Looking out at the grounds of the second place we stayed - Bluebeard's Resort

Steve snorkeling at Coki Beach

Lots of fish

And some more

The water was so amazingly clear

Lone palm tree at Sapphire Beach

Jill at Blackbeard's Castle

It was an amazing trip!! We hope to go back with our family someday.

Bee Anxiously Engaged - Cherry Hill Stake Relief Society Conference 2013

We had another great Relief Society Conference this year.  Our theme was taken from Elder Ballard's  General Conference talk in October.  He told the story of his father's honey bees which each worked tirelessly to produce a very small amount of honey but as a united group were able to make a lot of the delicious treat.  We encouraged each sister to work on strengthening our young people and children regardless of whether she is a mother, grandmother, aunt, neighbor, etc.  The classes were great and the spirit of unity was especially noteworthy.  My counselor, Robin, had an idea for the food which was different than we have ever done it.  She has a favorite place she likes to go with her family in Florida where the family sits around a big griddle and a person makes all different flavors of pancakes to order.  They also have tons of different toppings and syrups to choose from.  Because of electrical limitations, we were not able to put a griddle on each table, but by creatively using extension cords and splitting the sisters into two eating sessions, we were able to arrange it so that every group of two round tables was served by one serving table.  The sisters all shared in the cooking and had a great time.  There were no lines and everyone got just what they wanted.  Many sisters commented on how much fun is was to work together and be creative.  It was a lot of work - especially for my counselor in charge of the food - but it came off great!!  Here are a few photos from the day.

Beehive Centerpieces just after completion

One of the serving tables for two round tables

One of the round tables

We had this table as the centerpiece of the room.  On it were little papers cut in the shape of a honeycomb on which sisters could write a specific goal for strengthening children.

The honeycomb papers were then put on this commitment board.  

Here's a shot of the room

A close-up of some of the syrups on the lazy Susans in the middle of each table

A table with toppings

Both hard boiled and fresh eggs and the various batters for the different pancakes

They were so delicious!!!

A very fun and uplifting day for all!!