Easter Holiday!

I love Easter.

I love Easter like I love Christmas.

It should be as exciting because,

well, BECAUSE IT IS!

Jesus was Resurrected.

Nothing is more hopeful in this world.

So let's celebrate the greatest achievement in all of creation.

Easter brought us many happy things...

But the happiest of all would be ANJI

from LAS VEGAS!

Which, naturally, brings us her sons also.

Jonah and Christian...

(Here, they are on the best day of their lives.

The PTSD wore off, they say, but they still scream out at night.)

I prefer the Picture Patch bunny photo op, myself.

Saturday, we all went fishing at the Ririe Reservoir!

It's part of Doug's learning to love Idaho plan.

Jake was extremely vigilant!

I hoped with all my heart that his hard work would turn into a fish...

but alas,

we came home empty handed.

With everyone else skipping rocks trying to make it to the ice,

I can't imagine why there weren't any fish around.

😶

"OMGosh! This is for fishing!?"

😜

Christian

(the explorer of abandoned mines, 

the photographer of grizzly bear cubs, 

the inner-city evader of street gangs)

wanted to see how far he could go out on the frozen parts of the reservoir.

Since he has no dependents just yet, 

the aunt part of me told him, 

"Sure! Go ahead! I'll take pictures!"

😁

Then when Colette asked to go too, 

the mom part of me said,

"HECK NO! YOU WOULD DIE!"

👺

But he didn't. He survived,

and I took pictures.

🙋

Here the rest of us are, safely on the docks...

The water level rises later in the summer,

and right now, we would be soaking our feet in the water.

Richard should have brought his metal detector,

to find everyone's missing keys and wedding rings!

It was just a perfect day

with a perfect picnic...

...a roaring bonfire...

...something in Laura's ear...

...and the entire place nearly all to ourselves!

(Aside from the weird camera drone operator that kept spying on us.

Yeah, we saw you buzzing around!)

We earned some of the best ice cream in the country.

#reedsdairyis#1

(wait, can you put a number sign in a hashtag?)

Who keeps changing things!

EASTER SUNDAY!

Also, EVI'S BIRTHDAY!

What a doubly special day!

DINNER TIME!

Little kid's tables!

Jeff and Karlee brought a cotton candy machine!

Life of the party, like always!

It was phenomenal weather!

Which is kind of a miracle.

It's not unusual to have a white Christmas AND white Easter in Idaho.

We'll take the sunny day for once!

We had a special bunny visitor!

(well, she actually lives here)

We got another bunny.

Did I mention that before?

Her name is PO because she has black ears and eyes like a panda.

She is a gift from my sister from her photo studio bunny pictures!

We colored about 5 dozen eggs between all of us!

Egg salad for days!

Speaking of eggs, 

LET'S GO FIND SOME!
Thank you Jonah and Christian for hiding them!

(one was taped to Christian's back!)

😂

Adult viewing area

Lots of eggs were found by all!

Sweet Quinn sharing in the sorting fun!

Hey guys, those aren't... 

eggs...

keep looking...

Let the candy fest begin!

So fancy!

Grandma had to defend herself against some of the Easter presents.

Lovely sisters!

All of them!

I don't know if you are familiar with the game Killer Bunnies...

but it's a Skifton Family tradition.

You start with the basic game,

and then we have about 20 booster decks.

Shuffling the cards takes about 30 minutes,

(Mostly done by Michelle)

and then you have five ginormous stacks of cards to play with.

Since Doug's family moved back from Hungary,

we wanted them to be apart of the family fun.

We tried playing and realized that starting with all the expansions mixed in,

is like trying to teach a baby how to swim

not just in the deep end, 

but in the deep end going over a waterfall...

So I endeavored to separate and sort ALL the EXPANSIONS

back out of the game!

After doing this all day, I could NOT find

the carrot cards ANYWHERE.

If you haven't played the game, 

you only need to know

that carrot cards determine the winner of the entire game.

So without the carrot cards,

it's like playing chess without a King.

No one would ever win, EVER.

The game would continue,

with our bunnies being needlessly murdered 

by each other until the very end of time.

I immediately placed the blame on Jonah.

Not just because he's an easy target,

and he won't leave me alone about his scarce victory in another game,

but because he was the last person seen playing 

Killer Bunnies in this house.

He vowed that he returned the carrots to the box

and didn't have anything to do with their disappearance.

(I found out later,

he had even gone shopping online

to try and find replacement cards!)

Well, sadly we haven't played Killer Bunnies in a long time.

We had written it off as a useless endeavor

and spoke only of it in fond, reminiscent tones.

"Remember when we used to play this amazingly fun card game

that brought together everyone in the family in perfect unity?"

Well, it's Easter weekend...

The Easter bunny came...

Anji is here...

Everything in the cosmos was screaming 

that Killer Bunnies needed to be played.

A wrong needed to be righted!

So Richard, being the clever fox that he is,

printed out new carrot cards.

And with intense elation,

the shuffling of the cards began!

(Again, mostly by Michelle)

We slowly began reincorporating all the expansions!

We laughed with giddy anticipation!

Then Richard opened the perfectly pink booster deck,

expansion #9...

and...

there...

on the top...

were...

the...

carrot...

cards.

(gulp)

😨

My mind reeled with confusion.

I had checked

and checked

and checked

and checked

and checked

and re-checked

every. single. box.

I had teased and taunted and shamed Jonah 

for losing my cards,

and I was wrong.

They had been there this whole time.

While everyone was beyond excited that the actual carrot cards,

and not counterfeit printed cards,

had been found...

I felt so absolutely stupid.

I had to own up to Jonah what I had done.

And he forgave me.

With that grin on his face,

you know that grin?

The one that says,

"I'll forgive you, because

now I can hold this over your head

(just like winning Power Grid)

for the rest of your life."

And on that note, the joy of Easter ends.

But the hope and love of 

Jesus Christ

never does.

*Special THANK YOU to all the photo contributors! Anji, Christian, Jonah, and Karlee.

Always be kind to the family photographers!*

😍