Mean While...

While Dan and I were wandering around Europe footloose and fancy free, this is what was happening with the rest of the family. As told by my sister....



   

Easter in AZ

After an eventful road trip...

in which we discovered the 89 was closed 2 miles before it was closed and thus took a 2 hour detour on a roller coaster like bumpy road through an Indian Reservation making the occasional stop to dig our adopted caravan-er out of the dust her car was stuck in...

We finally made it to Phoenix.

1st stop: Grandma's house--Lexie: "We home! Grandpa have candy in his pocket?"

2nd stop: Change Grandma's tire at GCC

3rd stop: Squeeze those Strode kiddos & Abbers & Adilyn at Case De Strode

4th stop: CARAMBAS! Ooooh had I been needing it. I used to eat a bean & cheese burrito every Friday night believe it or not. Healthy eh?

We spent our few short days soaking up cousin time, working on Bryceon's wedding cake, celebrating Abby's birthday, and celebrating Easter.

We went to the Easter Pageant with Uncle Matt, Aunt Kara, & Luci on Luci's 5th birthday. Lexie and Luci snuggled and wrestled and giggled like BFF's. Also I got to eat Villa Deli which I'd also been needing.

Easter Pageant was just as beautiful as ever. Lexie was especially affected and talked about it for days "oooh so scary! Jesus and the rock! He flew up in sky! Angels singin'! All better now!

We colored Easter eggs with cousins in the back yard. Whisk idea=genius. Although somehow Adilyn managed to turn her hand green just like last year.

Zoey liked crushing the broken eggs with her little hulk hands.

JR. Prom Mt Ridge High School 2013

 Tori didn't have plans to go to her schools Prom. She was happy with the LDS prom. Then she heard she had been nominated (with 3 other JR girls) as a possible Prom princess. She didn't think she'd win, but thought it would be fun to go, and she felt honored to be nominated.

 She took an old dress she had found at the thrift shop (I will try to find a pic of what it used to look like) and completely re- fashioned it all on her own!

 She went wit a large group of kids  (20 to be exact) in a limo and to Ihop after. She said she had so much fun and was sore and tiered for all the dancing and staying up late!

 She also went with Jackson, you might recognize him from the LDS prom pics.

Semana Santa

 

 Semana Santa (or Holy Week) is the Spanish name for Easter. It dates back to the 16th century when the Church decided to present the story of the Passion of Christ in a way that the layperson could understand. It was decided that the best way to do this would be a series of processions through the streets, depicting scenes from the story of the fall and rise again of Jesus Christ.

The events from Thursday evening never really stop, with processions from Thursday night (the early hours of Friday morning) until Friday evening. Unless you have an excellent capacity to drink large quantities of coffee, you'll have to miss some of it to get a little beauty sleep. The events of Thursday night/Friday morning are the most important, so plan your sleep around this fact. The mass of Easter Sunday, the last day of Semana Santa, is also important. The hoods that have been worn throughout the week to signify mourning at the death of Jesus Christ, are taken off to celebrate the resurrection. (It should be noted that the hoods have nothing to do with the Ku Klux Klan, to which they are so often compared. It is said that early KKK members saw the Semana Santa celebrations and adopted the costume, so impressed were they by the effect the design had on onlookers.)

REJOICE! HE LIVES!