Easter Saturday with the Merrell's

The annual Easter Egg hunt has become quite the tradition over the past few years with my family. Mom and Dad hide the eggs all over yard and the fields around their house, and are usually still finding eggs months later. The pictures above are a couple of examples from 2006. This year they decided to come out to Salt Lake for the egg hunt since it is so stinking cold in Vernal and because so it was closer for most of us. We were going to eat a picnic at a park near my house and then find the eggs. In theory, this was a great idea. In reality, it was still COLD! This is the earliest Easter ever has been or ever will be for any of us living now. And this is one of the longest, wettest, and coldest winters in the past decade or more. Those two facts combine to make for a cold, and quick egg hunt.

All I had to do was mention the word "blog" and heads went down!

Vince getting Brynlie out to help keep him warm, and Sadie with a runny red nose from the cold.

Searching for eggs. To make sure that the "big kids" enjoy the egg hunt as much as the younger generation mom slips some cash in. This year she put #'s in 8 of the envelopes and if you got one of those you got the envelope that corresponded with that number. This was done since we were at a public park, and because we can't ever seem to find all of the eggs. Which is good since one of the eggs w/a number in it was never found. Some little kid would have been very lucky! The numbered eggs changed hands a few times as trades were made. Kristi and Chuck had a couple, and gave one to one of my girls, and traded one to my youngest sister Mickala for a ceramic pig. It turns out that the egg that they gave to her contained the largest prize...$100! Chuck told Kristi that she better take care of that $100 pig. But before you feel too bad for them, I gave them an egg after realizing that they had given my girls one, and it contained the other large prize of the day...$50. If we had all know just how much money Mom had put in those envelopes maybe we would have held on to those eggs a bit tighter.

Some of the eggs had a sticker on them and if you got one of those you got to exchange it for a prize that mom had. I think that's where the ceramic pig came from. Thank you mom for putting the finger paints in there...the girls had WAY too much fun with that today!


All of the family back at my house for a "family counsel" as some decisions are made regarding the future of our family. We also celebrated Meagan's birthday which was on the 21st, and Vince's, which is on the 31st. Thanks Mom and Dad for making Easter so much fun and always bringing the family together.

Lumber

We bought a huge load of lumber for our basement project last week. As we were unloading it Kylie came out and asked what we wearing on our hands. Jared told her that they were gloves...working gloves. Without missing a beat, she asked..."Then why is mom wearing them?" Ha...ha...ha...

Family Home Evening

We have tried, literally, for YEARS to start doing family home evening regularly as a South family. With a family this size it is near impossible to find a night that we can all meet. We have made suggestions for a night to meet, but then someone always seems to say that's a bad night for them. Jared has a box of a variety of MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) for our food storage that he wanted to try out to see which ones we like. I told him repeatedly that they sounded horrible and I would probably starve to death before eating them, but he insisted that if I got hungry enough I would eat them. So I had a great idea...why not get his brothers over to help sample them! I sent out an email saying that we were having family home evening at our house and we'd love to have everyone that could make it come. In the end all 20 of us were able to get together on St. Patrick's Day for a food storage family home evening. Joyce brought a few MRE flavors that we didn't have and Jeremy brought some 10 year old wheat to grind and make tortillas and cookies with. Jenn tied it all together nicely with a lesson about being prepared, both spiritually and temporally. I had asked her to do a thought, but she must have been inspired to know that we didn't really have much planned for a lesson so it turned out great.

Grandpa, George holding Kayla, and Jacob in the back. Jason, Maddie and Sadie sitting on the table.The wheat grinder.

The wheat after it was ground.

Jeremy grilling the tortillas.

Tawnie trying out a tortilla w/chicken.

Jared trying to decide if he liked the MRE that he was sampling.
Jason not so sure about the one he is tasting.
Tawnie, Mindy, and Jennifer.

All the kiddies feet.

Tyler

Brynlie and Grandma South


Larkyn kept the three girls entertained by doing cheer leading moves with them. Kylie is already asking when Larkyn can come back and do more with her.

Boxes of MREs.

Looks like dog food, tastes like dog food...

Saying good bye.

The tortillas were okay to eat, especially with food on them. The MREs on the other hand...gross!!! I can save you all time and money...do not buy them. The only one that most people agreed was not too bad was the Chili Mac. The worst two were the clam chowder, which stunk up the whole house and was described as smelling like power bait, and the one that I think was maybe beef w/mushrooms. That one was described as having the same taste that your mouth does after throwing up. That night after everyone left Jared told me that he didn't know if he could eat MREs, even if he was starving. Now that's saying something! The definite highlight of the eating experience was the chocolate chip cookies that Jeremy made. They were really flat and kind of grainy, but they were actually pretty good. Especially since there were TONS of chocolate chips in them. Dang it...I just realized that I didn't get any pictures of the cookies. Oh well. There aren't any pictures of me either. It was great fun getting everyone together and hopefully we will be able to keep this up every month!

The cousins and the brothers...

We had a South family home evening at our house Monday night and everyone was able to attend. We have not all been together since before Kayla was born. Here are all 7 of the cousins, oldest to youngest... Madison, Kylie, Jason, Sadie, Brynlie, Tyler, and Kayla.
The brothers doing their typical "smile" for the camera... I believe that the politically correct term for the two on the right is "life partners".
And if you need more proof...
Finally, one of them all smiling!
More pictures of Family Home Evening still to come...