Easter 2021

Last weekend’s Easter celebration was so fun!  After missing the opportunity to get together Easter 2020 because of Covid, we were happy that the most at-risk in the famiy were fully vaccinated, and this year we were able to enjoy a wonderful day together as a family.  The weather was beautiful, and we enjoyed a fun day together playing games, enjoying good company, and enjoying some great food.

Of course, Mouse had some entertaining games for us to play.  We started with team egg throws back to back.  Thankfully these were plastic eggs, as there were quite a few attempts to try to get the hang of throwing it the right way for the person at your back to catch it.  Eyes and heads were “supposed” to be straight ahead to make it most challenging in the first round, then the challenge progressed to being able to move one’s head but only using one hand to catch.

  

Some teams were more successful than others.  Clearly, Pops and I were NOT in that most successful category.  

  

Some teams were a little suspect in the cheating category…can’t imagine who would be part of that category!  

  

Bo and Layne emerged as the winning team.  They had a good rhythm from the start.

 

Our next game was with real eggs, and it was the classic team egg toss.  The teams were at quite a distance apart before a winner finally emerged. 

   

  

Emme and Brittany were the winners of this game, but it certainly wasn’t without some good competition from everyone.

 

Our last event before dinner was the Easter egg hunt for the girls.  As always, we try to make it challenging for them (after all we do have 4 out of 5 in the teenage category at this point), but it’s always a lot of fun to see what challenges we can come up with and what they can find. 

 

  

Cayenne, Cleo, and Maggie also had their own egg hunt with special dog treat eggs.  Cayenne loves egg hunting so much.  We were laughing that we don’t know what her favorite holiday is, Christmas or Easter.  It’s a toss up between opening her presents and hunting for eggs and eating the treats.  She loves them both!

 

We had a fabulous dinner prepared by Mouse and Pops then as it got dark, the girls had one last game.  Mouse gave Emme a shirt with candy taped on it, gave her a running head start, then told the other girls to try to chase her down and grab the candy from the back of her shirt.  It was a good way for them to run out the last of their energy for the night, and of course, they took turns wearing the shirt and being chased.

 

After a full day, we wrapped things up and all headed back to our homes, but I’m so glad we had the opportunity to get together this Easter.  Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus and enjoying a beautiful day together as a family was a great way to round out the end of our spring break week.

 

Spring Break 2021

Spring Break this year was pretty laid back.  We’re saving our plans to travel until the summer, so we decided to hang at home for spring break this year.  Mark received his first Covid vaccination just as spring break started, so that was an exciting start to the week, then we had a few nice days to get in some outdoor walks and horseback riding.  When the weather was nice, it was really nice, but the days that the weather wasn’t nice, it was cold and rainy.  So, thankfully we got some outdoor time in when it was nice, and then did a little shopping and time with friends when it was cold and rainy.

 

Our first venture was just to drive over to Riverbend Park and walk from there to Great Falls.  It was such a beautiful day to be out, and we finished things up with some s’mores and a firepit on the deck later that evening.  

  

 

  

 

Thankfully, the day we had booked to go horseback riding was one of the other nice days of the week.  Lyla has been wanting to go horseback riding, but with Covid, many of the trail ride locations have been inactive or limited over the past year.  We have really enjoyed our experience at Marriott Ranch, but they are one of the very limited options still because of Covid, so I found a new place for us to try called Royal Horseshoe Farm.  The farm was in a beautiful rural area of Front Royal, and we had a 1.5 hour trail ride booked for the the three of us.  

 

Overall, it was a good experience, but I will say they horses weren’t quite as docile as the ones we’ve ridden at Marriott Ranch!  It’s definitely a bit more stressful when the horses aren’t as predictable as you’d want, but thankfully there were only minor issues here and there.  If you ask Nina, we barely got out of there alive!  ha ha!!  Also, this ride was 90% in the woods with lots of unstable footing for the horses, so we probably prefer being out in the open more with less tripping and stumbling on the horses part.  All that to say, Lyla still really enjoyed herself, but we don’t see Nina wanting to go back to Royal Horseshoe Farm any time in the near future (the picture of Nina with the horse was before the ride). LOL!

 

    

  

 Our final day of nice weather for the week was a day we took some time to walk at Beaver Dam Reservoir.  It was pretty muddy and soggy from the previous days of rain, but it was really nice to be out and enjoy a natural preserve just minutes from our house.  Mark and the girls tried a little fishing at first, but the water temps were still a little cold to get much fishing action, but it didn’t stop Cayenne from swimming.  She had a blast running the trails and swimming, and we enjoyed a couple hours to just enjoy being out on a beautiful day.