Egg Rolling

It's been a busy week, but I wanted to make sure I got this recorded before Easter was long and forgotten. On Monday Grandma-Great invited us out egg rolling by her old house. Egg rolling is a Canadian tradition that Grandma has been celebrating her entire life, and I have some awesome egg rolling memories from my own childhood. It's such a simple concept- roll the egg down the hill, chase after it, then eat it afterwards- but it is the most fun part of Easter. I can't even explain why!

We started out the morning by dying some extra eggs to take along, then we met Grandma-Great at the hill. The boys had a blast, totally annihilating a half dozen eggs in the process. Even Luke, with his little tiny legs, trekked up and down the hill more times than I can count. Neither boy ate the eggs, but Grandma-Great brought along chocolate cupcakes so no one cared much. We also spent some time on the swings, the very same swings Grandpa Jack took me to when I was a girl. I love sharing parts of my childhood with my wonderful boys. That's what family traditions are all about.

Easter

Today we celebrated Easter, one of our favorite family holidays. It's such a privilege to celebrate the resurrection and atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As a family, we really try to emphasis the Savior in our celebration and not the Easter bunny, so even though we did a small Easter egg hunt today, we didn't do Easter baskets or toys. It was a much better experience for everyone.

The one different thing today, however, was that we had stake conference instead of regular church. I missed having the more intimate scale of our regular ward meetings, but today's message was mostly about the Savior so it was all good. The boys did remarkably well during the two hour session, even though Grandma and Grandpa and Kayla were on the stand singing in the choir. Thank heavens for Grandma-Great! We need all the help we can get during church.

Dinner was the standard ham, funeral potatoes, green bean casserole, jello, and rolls. Mom did go all out on the dessert and made us a bunny cake, which Max helped decorate a little. In true Sangray/Holt tradition, it wouldn't be a holiday without the food. After dinner we watched The Wizard of Oz as a family while the boys intermittently played outside. It was a beautiful day, which was nothing short of a tender mercy given our harsh winter. Spring really does feel like a season of rebirth and renewal this year, and we are ever so grateful for the warmer weather. Luke especially has been hankering for the chance to get outside; I've never seen a kid who wanted to spend so much time outside! I'm pretty sure we could set up a tent and he'd be perfectly content to never come in again. We love our boys, we love our Lord, and we're thankful for this Easter Sunday.

Family-Style Spring Break

After a long last month, we decided to change our own luck and make this spring break great. Yesterday we went with my family to Bozeman to check out the Museum of the Rockies and eat some great food. Both boys had a blast checking out the live gecko and dinosaur exhibits, then mom stayed with Luke while the rest of us watched a presentation in the planetarium. It's been years since I made it to the museum, and it was such a treat to share it with the boys. Max loves looking through museums! He's always such a little trooper, checking out all the displays and soaking in all the new information. The only two hiccups were Luke sitting on a gooey saltwater taffy and destroying his jeans and Max splitting his ear open at the restaurant we went to for dinner. I always worry/panic about taking the boys on road trips, but they always do so well. I love how great they are in the car, and it inspires Darreck and I to keep making great memories with them.

Today Darreck and I decided to divide and conquer with the boys. He took Max to his first t-ball get together, while Luke and I did some shopping with my mom downtown. I love shopping at our local boutiques, and today did not disappoint. I found some really cute stuff! The best part was getting to hang out with my mom. This afternoon is stake conference, then Darreck and I are going to see a musical tonight while Grandma-Great watches the boys. It's been forever since we had a date, and we're both looking forward to it.

Tomorrow we are excited to celebrate Easter and enjoy the rest of our spring break!

A Rough Month

It's been way, way too long since I posted, but there hasn't been much good to report this month. I love recording the good times for posterity, but I have a harder time talking about the rough patches. For starters, this has been the longest, coldest winter in recorded history. Now that we're finally getting some sunshine I'm finally getting some better perspective. Most of this month has been marked by Luke's allergies flaring up with no clue as to the cause. We're kind of at a loss for what to do with him, but we certainly feel bad that he's so miserable.

After inconclusive results from the allergist, the only sure thing is that we need to get rid of Tana. It was extremely hard on all of us to say goodbye to our beloved kitty. She is the best cat I've ever met- sweet and affectionate without being clingy, very quiet, and great with the kids. She's in foster care now, waiting to find a new family, and it's been hard on me not knowing how everything will turn out for her. Now we're in the process of getting rid of the pet dander, which leads to...

We've been house hunting to the point of putting an offer on a house and listing ours. After the allergist told us it would take 18-24 for the cat dander to fully denature, we thought that moving would probably work best. The problem is that we can't start an elimination diet to find out what foods he's sensitive to with him still reacting to the cat. There are too many cross-sensitivities to fully understand where the true problem lies. We lost out on the house we wanted, then we were stuck with our house on the market and no suitable alternatives. We walked through at least 25 houses, none of which were as nice as our current home. It was frustrating, to say the least. We finally made the decision to pull our house off the market, which probably made us look incredibly flaky to everyone else. Currently, we're directing our focus on waging war with the cat dander. It's our only viable option right now.

In the middle of all this, I managed to re-injure my back. After a few days of suffering, my mom finally convinced me to see a chiropractor, which worked out pretty well. My entire family jumped into action, with Darreck taking time off from work, and my mom feeding us and running me around to appointments. I feel so blessed to have family nearby and ready to help out.

The other drama of the month revolves around Darreck's family, again. As usual. I've come to determine that there are three types of trials: self made, circumstantial, and the result of other's agency. The house hunt was self-made drama, but my back and Luke's allergies are purely circumstantial. The problems with Darreck's family stem from their bad choices, which negatively impact our entire family. I'm not entirely sure why we couldn't space them out better, but apparently when it rains it pours. Right now I'm looking forward to spring and summer, hoping that they bring better times. My drama meter is completely full for the next month (year, decade...). I have a very low tolerance for chaos, but I'm sure there's something to be learned in all this. I haven't quite figured out what that lesson is yet, but it will come in it's own due time.