easter bliss

Spring break for Clyde and Erin was a joke. Their county canceled the majority of spring break due to the last snow storm. They only had Good Friday and yesterday off from school. While our county schools still have this entire week off. The perk to Clyde and Erin is that their school ends a week earlier than Libby and Josh's. We only had a few days so we decided to take the chance to get out of town and we headed to the beach to visit family. We had a great weekend. Friday felt like Saturday though. We made it to the flea market on Saturday and Clyde and I did go eat @ the crab legs buffet. Awesome.
When we were finished eating we were stopped by one of those tour people and decided to take a tour of a 'vacation opportunity.' Really we went for the $80 that they would give us @ the end of the tour. As promised it took nearly 3 hours. At the end of a very long demo, video all about 'owning your vacation' we, along with our guide went to tour one of the condos that we could stay in. It was beautiful. However, knowing our budget, I know that there was no way, right now, that we could pay the nearly $600 per month for the next 10 years to 'own' our vacations. After explaining it to them, our guide brought in the 'closer' to try to get us to finance it, sign a paper giving consent to check our credit and was getting really pushy. (He lost my respect...the closer...from the get go when he insulted us about having 5 children. He said that it was "cheaper to buy a VCR." creep.) So when he...the closer brought out his pen and paper and tried his best to sell us something, I snapped. After a brief bold few minutes, of firmly telling him NO!, he got up and left. And so did we, but with $80 and no contract. I would go on a tour again, for the gift. The funny thing about this vacation deal, was how big they were on 'owning your vacation.' When in the end, after we kept telling them no, they offered us a lease on our vacation. Twenty-two months of $118, so many points to spend and no obligation. So really we could still 'rent' our vacation.
We went to the ocean once we returned from our tour. It was so pretty. It was 7pm by the time we got down to the water, but it was still light enough to play. I really enjoy sitting and watching the Wardlings play @ the beach. The Wardlings had so much fun, feeding the birds, playing in the sand, looking for sea shells etc., that the time flew while we were on the beach. We did have one rule...not to get wet. We understand about getting wet up to your ankles, but the weather was still chilly, very breezy, and the water was freezing. Of course a few of the Wardlings didn't listen and thus Clyde was the bad guy as shown on the video.

Sunday we got up and headed for sacrament. I was excited when I saw that there was going to be a special music number with "I know My Redeemer Lives." (It's one of my favorite hymns.) And yet very sad when it wasn't done. There were 2 gals who spoke about either leaving for her mission or returning, but the talks were not Easter Sunday material. I was a bit disappointed, truth be known. However, we were still together and that was what was important.

After sacrament we went outside of Grammy and Papa's ward building to take pictures in our Easter clothes. I was slow this year in my planning and thus the clothes were made within a day or two. I knew what I wanted to do, had the fabric, but I was just slow. The boys got matching Star Wars ties, Libby and Penny got a dress, while Erin got a shirt and a skirt. I had cut out 2 dresses like Libby's, but the sizing was off, even though I cut out the right size for Erin's measurements. I didn't do a muslin dress one first, which was my fault, so I got a beautiful dress that only fit our beautiful Libby. That left me scrambling for Erin. I was so glad that I had enough fabric for a skirt for Erin (which I made without a pattern. I'm very proud...) and a peasant top shirt. The shirt turned out so pretty. I used a white cotton eyelet and then tied a ribbon around her waist and boy was she pretty. She looked like a model. Penny wanted yellow, of course and so that's what she got. She was so mad that she couldn't wear the yellow dress as soon as it was finished. I don't think that she would have taken it off.
Grammy, Papa and the Wardlings dyed eggs and Grammy and Libby hid them for the other Wardlings to find. It was cute to see them run around Grammy and Papa's yard looking for eggs. Penny really got into it this year.
Libby and Josh were invited to stay the remainder of the week with Grammy and Papa. It feels weird without them here. Overall, we had a spectacular weekend. Now...it is back to work/ school for Clyde and Erin and a mountain of laundry to do. :)