With Easter arriving a little earlier than usual year, it provided some additional challenges for my family. The weekend fell right between the end of my husband’s Spring Break and the beginning of my kids’ Spring Break. Since we really wanted to be home at church for Easter, that made any sort of Spring Break vacay a challenge.

After our initial plan of pulling the kids out of school for a beach trip fell apart (due to the little one having an ear infection), I was feeling a little defeated. Especially since this had been the story the last several times we tried to plan a little getaway (not an ear infection necessarily, but always someone getting sick). I had resorted to a quiet weekend at home and tried to focus on our blessings and forget my disappointment.

When a wildly stressful Friday left my brain spinning, it wasn’t out of the norm for my husband to suggest taking the family out for dinner. Despite our extremely cranky baby, I really did not want to cook and agreed to the crazy plan, even if it meant eating standing up while bouncing around the baby.

Imagine my surprise, walking into The Counter, seeing MY PARENTS sitting at the bar! My parents, who live two states away and drove over 900 miles on a whim to surprise me! WHAAAAA?!? I still can’t believe how many times I talked to my mom on the phone over the two days they were driving and that I had NO CLUE what they were up to! Hahaha!

They only stayed in town for a couple days, but boy did we make the most of it! We went shopping, visited the local farmer’s market, planned a last minute Easter meal at Costco, BBQed at the pool, went to Easter service, did a little photo shoot, baked a ham (and homemade potato salad….YUM!), had a spontaneous egg hunt, went on a hike, flew kites, visited the zoo, took the kids to froyo, shopped some more… PHEW! All in 3 days! Even my kiddos are exhausted…but we made some GREAT memories!

How did YOUR Easter weekend go? Was it a quiet weekend at home or a celebration with friends and family? Did you have beautiful weather or was it yucky? I hope regardless of where you were, you took a moment to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior, who is our HOPE for the future!