Easter Pics

It was cloudy so that was good.



My camera drives me nuts, which was bad.


The kids were mostly cooperative, which was good.








But it was really windy, which was bad.
And despite having to quit due to rain, we got a few good shots, which was good.

You might wonder about this one, but I will let you in on a little secret on why it is one of my favorites: this is the special "I love you" face that Ian makes just for me!

Easter

I was pretty sure that Easter would pass me by in a fog of fatigue. I was rethinking my decision to join Chris with the kids on the trip to Indiana but it was too late. We had already gone and we arrived home late and tired with things to do to be ready for the next day: Easter Sunday.

It is one of my favorite holidays. Maybe my most favorite. I still recall the Easter activity in one of my singles wards that brought into clear focus the events surrounding the Resurrection. I distinctly remember the verses that record the resurrected Lord approaching Mary in the garden. She did not recognize Him until He said her name. I remember realizing that it will be the same with us one day. He will call me by name. I want to recognize Him when He does.

But this Easter I wasn't sure that I would even feel a flicker as I tried to keep the children reverent in Sacrament meeting and rushed off to teach my Primary class, always an iffy opportunity, spiritually speaking. It seemed my chances to be spiritually fed had passed me by when I arrived at Sharing Time.

There was planned an egg hunt for the Resurrection Eggs. Numbered 1-12, each egg contained a scripture and an item representing an event that occurred leading up to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As those scriptures were read my heart was softened and then melted completely as I felt anew the gratitude and love I feel for my Savior. And then, the love my Savior has for me. I felt like I could come apart at the seams but managed to keep it together.

"Phew!" I thought as the scripture reading came to an end.

The primary chorister, with just a few minutes left decided we should sing Gethsemane as our closing song. We sang this song last year as part of our Primary program so it was not new or unexpected. But as we started out I only made it about one line in before my seams burst, the dam broke and I quit singing to wipe at rolling tears that refused to be stemmed.

I was so overwhelmed by love for my Savior, my Redeemer. I was so overwhelmed by the love I felt from Him. I generally prefer to keep any blubbering I might do to myself. I was only moderately successful. But who cared? Jesus loves me! And He lives!

He really, really lives! How amazing! How miraculous! How...how....how loving. I strive each day to serve the Lord so that when He calls his sheep I will be numbered among those who hear and recognize His voice. I am still a work in progress but this Easter I knew I was loved and I knew that Jesus is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and that He lives.

The Easter Bunny Almost Missed Us!

The sale of our house in Indiana is currently pending. It is conditional upon inspection of the house and financing for the buyer.

Well, after a very thorough inspection a 21 item list of repairs was presented to us. Some big (like repairing a part of the roof), some expensive (like raising and leveling the front step and sidewalk and repairing cracks in the driveway) and some, well, stupid (like putting in the 4th screw on the electrical panel-lest it fall off the wall.)

We decided that it would be worth a quick trip down to see what Chris could do himself and make an informed decision about the other repairs after seeing for ourselves. Since Chris had Good Friday off work and the drive is just over 3 hours we were sure we could make the trip there and back and still be back for church on Sunday.

I contacted a couple of friends to make sure that the kids and I could invade while Chris was left free to work at the house and we set out Friday morning.

We made the drive with relative ease and arrived to an overgrown, patchy yard and an empty house. At first, there was a feeling of nostalgia but as we walked around and considered all the work the house and landscaping needed we decided that we couldn't sign the papers fast enough!!

Soon, the kids and I crashed at the Robinsons house and stayed the afternoon...and on into evening. They played with us, talked with us, and fed us. It was so fun to spend time together and catch up on all theirs news. (They have exciting new things in their future!)

The next morning we planned to do an Easter Egg hunt and brunch at some kind stranger's house. We didn't know them but the invitation was to the Robinsons and included anyone who wanted to come. Sadly, we arrived late and missed the egg hunt.

Since we were prepared with our own loaded eggs Chris ran over to neighboring field and hid our eggs for the kids to find. I wasn't sure what would be needed so I filled all the eggs we had before we left. It ended up being about 55 eggs. With their 20, Chris hid 75 eggs.

Despite the tall grass and large field we only lost 4.
Pretty good, all told!
And we got to visit with friends from our old church ward. It was a happy morning celebrating spring, friends and beautiful weather.
Afterwards, we dropped Chris off at the house to work and the kids and I invaded another friendly family, the Tates. They really were saintly and patient with us since the kids were all...mmm...yelp, gotta be honest. They were all ornery the whole afternoon. Luckily, they didn't kick us out for bad behavior!

I love having friends (who doesn't, right?) but it is especially wonderful to have friends with whom spending time is like wrapping up in a favorite blanket-easy, comfortable and enjoyable no matter when how long it has been since you wrapped up in it!

Chris finished a few repairs, found a contractor to do the rest we were willing to do and entertained the kids while I packed the van and cleaned the house. (We ended up agreeing to do 11 or 15 of the requested repairs.) We drove home, again with relative ease, and arrived home way past bedtime!

Sunday comes regularly and we were up an at 'em to get to church. We were only a little late because I couldn't bear to wake Sage from a sound, solid sleep when I knew she was so desperate to catch up on what she had missed on our trip.

(I was a little surprised at the wonderful experience I had but I will share that in my next post.)

After church, we headed home for naps, and the start of some of our Easter traditions. Chris and I haven't got it all figured out but we really want our children to know and love their Savior and know what He did that makes Him our Savior.
Last year Elise, my sister, and her kids made Resurrection Rolls. I had never heard of them and thought they were an excellent object lesson for little children. We added them to our Easter traditions this year.

While they were baking we read from the scriptures about Jesus' last few days and the miracle of His resurrection.
When we bit into them they were empty like the tomb!
(And they were so yummy that even when our children don't need them to visualize the empty tomb we will still be including them in our Easter celebrations!)

Then and Almost Now

I was looking back through our pictures trying to find good ones to update the sidebar of the blog when I found some that I hadn't posted.
They don't really have a story but I think they are too cute to pass up completely.
They are old, or so they seem to me now. They are from the last 4 or 5 months.



These are much more recent, from just a couple of weeks ago.Can you guess where they are? That is our fence...and that is a mesh netting in front of them...
Yes! It is a trampoline! When we received the offer on our house in Indiana we thought to celebrate by getting the kids a trampoline. Maybe it would have been smarter to wait till we actually closed on the house but we couldn't resist.
It has been a constant source of entertainment since we got it set up (and just in time for spring break too!)!

Lucca

After my short afternoon/evening in Venice we woke up on Monday morning and after breakfast, took a vaporetto to the train station. We found our train with relative ease and while waiting to board found out that I was sitting several coaches away.

Makes sense since I booked separately from them. I tried to sit with them but after a couple of stops the train was really filling up and the people wanted their seat. I couldn't help but think of Mission Impossible as I was passing through from coach to coach while the train was speeding through the Italian countryside.

My real seat faced the opposite direction from the way we were going and between that and the little slice of window I could see over my shoulder I got a little sick. I dozed a bit too and didn't feel at all guilty that I was wasting time with my Mom and sister since they weren't there!

Finally, we arrived in Florence. We had already decided (via a text just a few hours before I left for the airport) that we would spend our first day in Florence actually doing a day trip from Florence. There are several good options; I finally chose Lucca. (I will just have to the others, like Pisa, on my next trip to Italy:)
I had investigated and decided that we could take a train or a bus to Lucca. Conveniently, we were in the train station. We checked schedules and realized that there was a train leaving in a half an hour. We watched closely (and probably annoyingly!) as others bought their train tickets from the kiosks and then made our own purchase. It only took us two times to get it done.

We quickly found our departing train and tried to find seats together. It was definitely more of an everyday commuter train. And all the more interesting for it, really. As we boarded and stowed are bags on the racks overhead we realized that in our hurry we hadn't taken the time to check our bags so we wouldn't have them while walking around Lucca.
We thought we would find one at the station when we arrived. After looking all over (and asking a couple of different people) we couldn't find a bag check. But we did find the bathroom, which Mom thought convenient...until she saw it. Needless to say, (and it really is needless, right?) we all declined the opportunity to go.

Our next best option for our bags, we decided, was a hotel. There was one just across the way and headed there. A nice lady (really, one of the nicer people we met in Italy) quickly pointed us up a close street to a place we could check the bags. How helpful! How close! And why did the those other people we had asked tell us they had no idea what we could do with our bags?

From there we could see the walls surrounding the oldest part of Lucca, the original city.

We crossed a smallish park and took our life in our hands crossing the road before following the sidewalk to the hole in the wall.
Then up the stairs.

(Here I feel compelled to insert how surprised I was at all the graffiti I saw in Italy. I found it less than charming and really, kind of sad. This sparked the thought, maybe for the first time but definitely not the last, about whether the average Italian just took for granted how absolutely amazing it is to have these kinds of places and things around them. As they covered it in graffiti. The Rialto Bridge, for instance, lost a lot of allure by being covered in it.)
Then out at the top of the wall. This was the view towards the outside of the wall.And the view towards the inside

We actually spent the bulk of our time taking a circuitously scenic route to the birth place of some one famous and well known. The name escapes me at the moment. Maybe Mom or Elise will leave a comment...

We picked a little place to eat (and actually used their not-a-squatty-potty) and enjoyed this little fountain with our lunch.
We also had to get some gelato for our taste test. Oh, and another little pita bread sandwich thing with cheese and olives and....ooh, it was yummy.

We didn't want to get back to Florence and be hunting our hotel in the dark so we headed back to Florence in the late afternoon.

(After collecting our bags. I didn't listen to Italian and really feel like I got what was said because of knowing Spanish. It really just made me want to speak Spanish to the Italians, something I think they wouldn't appreciate. But in that one instance with the bag check man who didn't speak English and Elise, Mom and I strained for any familiar words, my Spanish-speaking brain clutched at the one word I recognized: diez. We happily paid our 10 euro and caught our train.)

Venice

It all started on Saturday at about 2:00. I caught the shuttle from the Milwaukee airport to O'Hare in Chicago. The air conditioner was on the fritz. It got a bit warm We arrived a bit after the scheduled time but not bad. Then the driver skipped my terminal. I walked back. Luckily, I had packed for my week in Italy in a backpack. (Wouldn't be the first time I was grateful for that!)

After checking in I went through security, placing in the bins the appropriate items: shoes, jacket, liquids (I didn't check my bag since I knew I had some tight connections), cell phone, etc. Made it to my gate and found a seat. And sat. For a long time. In the sun (windows were full west.) All I could think was that by the time I made it to Venice I was going to look really worn.
It made me sigh. Appropriate for the Bridge of Sighs. At least I wasn't crossing it from the Doge's Palace (which I didn't get to see since I arrived in Venice so late) on my way to prison!

The flight was delayed due to the plane arriving late. Then it was delayed for technical problems. Twice. And that was it-game over-I would miss my next two flights. I finally arrived in Toronto and after going through customs and getting an unexpected stamp in my passport I was put on a new flight to Frankfurt, Germany. But she couldn't print my boarding pass for my flight to Venice for some reason.

Crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Frankfurt. Stopped at the first customer service desk I could find and found out I wasn't booked on the flight to Venice. After some calling around because no one wants to pay for the mistake I finally have a seat on a flight to Venice. I passed through customs again and got a Germany stamp in my passport (I think I might have offended the customs agent when my reply to "How long are you planning to be in Germany?" was "Hopefully, a just a couple of hours." but he stamped it anyway!) and then I have to pass through security again to get back to the gates.
I guess I was a little naive (it was my first time in Europe!) but I didn't really think I would have to do customs and security in each country I flew through. Anyway, thankfully, after crisscrossing the airport I found my gate and made my flight.

I landed in Venice and didn't have to go through customs. No Italy stamp in my passport.

Change some money (another adventure-the ATM tried to eat my debit card!) and find the right ticket for the right bus. I only had to ask around a little:)
It is now about 4:30 on Sunday and I am on a vaporetto watching for my stop. I don't think I had ever been so happy to see these two faces as I was at that moment! I was tired and travel worn and so glad that I didn't have to try and find the hotel on my own. I thought I could do it, I had a map and everything, but I was really unprepared for the little alleys that constituted streets. They smiled and hugged me and gave me a crepe filled with nutella and bananas.

After dropping my things at the hotel we set out to see some of the sights. Elise and Mom had arrived in the morning and luckily knew enough (by then:) that we didn't get lost the whole rest of the evening!

I was pretty restrained with my camera because Elise had hers-it's way better and she knows how to use it! (1500+ pictures by the end of the trip...my copy should come in the mail...soon:) I will probably add and edit each post with more pictures later but for now I am just putting in what I have.

Basilica de San Marco

This picture was actually for my kids, but if you are a Magic Treehouse reader you might recognize the great winged lion that carried Jack and Annie out to sea so they could speak with Neptune and save Venice!
I was too late to get in the Doge's palace but since I didn't spend money on the entrance fee there we decided to spend more money on a gondola ride. Everything I had read before coming pretty much said that gondolas are the most tourist thing ever.

It was but it was so worth it. Amazing. I learned a lot that I have since forgotten about the dates and number of islands and bridges and water depth and flooding but it was serene and peaceful and beautiful and so worth it.
We finished our evening with dinner (spaghetti carbonara-delicious) and gelato (two stops and two kinds:)

My stop in Venice was short. We woke up the next morning and headed back to the train station to head to Florence.