Easter, or "Pasen" This was a fun Easter weekend. We spent it up at my parents house this year. The kids are at fun ages where they are starting to really enjoy these kinds of holidays now, which of course makes it more fun for us as parents! I sometimes struggle a bit with Easter, as the secular holiday seems to have no focus whatsoever on the real meaning of Easter, the Savior's atonement. So this year we tried to incorporate some more spiritual themes with the holiday, to balance the other fun traditional Easter celebrations of eggs, Easter bunnies and baskets that were definitely also present and enjoyed.

It was fun for me to learn that word for Easter is 'Pasen' in Dutch and is a translation of the Hebrew word for "Passover", which commemorates the passing over of the destroying angel that the Israelites experienced in Moses' time. They were commanded to remember the passover with a yearly celebration and meal called the passover. Though that is pretty much the extent of my knowledge on that subject, it brought a little more history and spiritual touch to Easter this year. The passover symbolizes the atonement of our Savior for all men who accept and follow Him. This Sunday, as we sat around the breakfast table, we discussed all the events leading up to Christ's suffering in Gethsemane, his death on the cross and His glorious resurrection. It was very special to spend time remembering the Savior on this day. We watched 'finding faith in Christ' with the kiddos, which brought an even sweeter spirit to this special Sabbath. We decided to make it a family tradition from now on, to on Easter Sunday spend time talking about and watching events from the Saviors last weeks here on earth. 
 Now, on to the eggs and bunnies :) And yes, there were plenty to go around. Benson got to  meet the Easter Bunny himself:

We colored Easter eggs, of course. This year we decided to limit the number of eggs to color since in previous years certain men in our family have not enjoyed the quantity of eggs colored, but would rather focus on the quality of a few eggs :) So we obliged and we all participated! It was fun:

 

 

 

 

 This egg was courtesy of my dad :) very funny.....

After coloring my dad went into their back yard and hid some plastic eggs that we had filled with candy. Ella caught on to the idea pretty fast, and was trying to  beat Benson before he had gathered all the eggs in a matter of minutes!

 

 

 

 

We worked up quite the appetite after, so we went out to dinner at a fun restaurant in Ogden Canyon called  the Timbermine. Kate and her kids met us there as well and we had a lovely dinner.

 

 

 

 

Easter Sunday started out with an egg hunt for the kiddos and them receiving their Easter baskets. They were both really excited to get new sunglasses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finally, getting ready for church we snapped these cute pictures of us dressed up. My mom made the dress Ella is wearing.

 

 

And that wraps up the Holiday weekend. Now it is back to real life, the first time we are starting a week as NON-students!! This summer should be very exciting and adventurous for our little family!