Easter

 We started our Easter weekend off with the ward Easter Egg Hunt. The boys had a fun time, meanwhile Luke did the bbq and fries for the ward, so that was fun too. We came home and the boys got to dye some eggs, and were very excited!

On Easter the boys found their baskets when they woke up, and then I took some pictures of them before heading to church.

Ah, both of them looked so handsome! I also brought these yummy treats for the girls in my young women's class.

After church we did another little egg hunt in the yard. I love how sweet and cute the boys were that day. Our tradition on Easter is to also watch the movie The Testaments, which we all love. It was another great Easter day.

Back to Rexburg!

Flashback to 2004 (10 years ago!) when Luke and I were students at BYU-Idaho and just friends in the same FHE group.

We have fond memories of Rexburg and our time together out there, so we've been excited for my sister's graduation from BYU-Idaho this April as an excuse for us to go back to Idaho and see all the places we used to love to go.

One thing we used to love to do is drive through the canyon and go on hikes or just do dutch oven dinners. On our way into Rexburg on Wednesday we drove right by the canyon we used to always take, and were excited to drive through again but weren't too surprised to see it was still snow-packed and we would not be making it in. But we still took a picture to show we were there again.

But that was ok, we made it into Rexburg after a day's drive and were pleased to see the town itself hadn't changed much, though we loved seeing this new temple at the top of the hill! When we left Rexburg in 2007, the temple was nearly completed but we never had the chance to go in. It really is beautiful!

That first night in we met up with Julia and took her out for dinner, then let the boys play at the hotel pool. The next morning Luke showed up at his old campus job, at Stores and Receiving, wearing his old work shirt and surprised his old boss and coworkers. They were happy to see him and said he hadn't changed a bit!

 

Later we stopped by as a family so he could meet the kids. Luke really looks up to him so it was good for them to catch up :)

Then we spent a good amount of time walking around campus, checking out was was new and our old spots too. Here was me at the Hinckley building where I spent most of my education classes.

Jacob was getting a little tired of us talking about college so we stopped in the Benson for him to take a look at the little animal exhibit there. And even though he was getting a little tired walking around, I asked him if he would like to go to college here one day and he said yes- so I took this picture for him for future reference ;)

But we were most excited to see the new I-Center and were amazed at how big and beautiful it was.

Taking pictures didn't even give the room justice on how big it was, even with Luke's panoramic shot.

Mostly though, Luke was jealous he never got to play in one of the several basketball courts they have down there too, the place was huge! I took a ton more pictures of campus and we had a fun time walking around and checking it all out!

We got to stop by and see a few old friends, including Melanie, Stephanie, and Nicole Packer! They were in our old ward in Colorado but it was fun to see them up in Rexburg, all grown up :)

Luke and I were also amazed at the amount of new apartment complexes there are and compared to the places we used to live, these places are extremely nice! This is the complex my sister lives in.

So anyway, that Thursday night, my family got together and went to Julia's Interior Design Banquet.

Julia helped a lot to put that event together and she had her final project on display too. She and her group designed a hospital and it was aweome!

All the girls graduating received awards, but I think Julia's was the best.  

We were able to visit together as a family, and since they just served desserts we went out for a late dinner afterwards to a new BBQ place they had in town.

The next morning, we got up and went to the Rexburg temple while Julia and my grandma watched the kids. It was a beautiful temple and great to be able to go with my family.

 Later that day we went to the graduation dinner, and then headed over to the Commencement.

We couldn't find Julia in the sea of graduates earlier but we found her afterwards to get some pictures.

Julia with her BYU-Idaho graduated siblings and a family picture :)

I was in charge of getting a picture of Julia at her Convocation where she received her "diploma" but I somewhat failed and didn't get a good shot since it happened so quickly! But I did catch her with the rest of her Interior Design department afterwards.

Yay, we're proud of her and all her hard work and wish her luck with what's ahead!

Saturday was our last day and the weather was fairly nice so we went for a little hike along the Snake River. My parents let us borrow an old hiking backpack they had- Blake didn't like it at first but once he realized Jacob would get a ride he decided to try it again, and then he loved it. But poor Luke still ended up carrying both the boys most the hike anyway, haha.

We made it to the top and it was a pretty view! It was a beautiful day and fun to get out together as a family.

Unfortunately, the warm weather didn't stick around all day and it got pretty cool that night, but Luke had his heart set on making a dutch oven dinner for the family. Everyone was a good sport through the cold, and the dinner turned out great! Just like our good old dutch oven days. 

We came home, all went swimming at the hotel pool and hot tub, and then did a little birthday party for Tyler since his birthday was two days away. (We already ate a little bit of cake the night before to celebrate Julia's graduation, ha.)

I also tried getting a few shots of my new niece Audrey, exactly one month old, who was very patient while I practiced taking pictures on her, and I had to get one picture of her with her cousins.

It's always sad for us to say goodbye to family but we had a great weekend together and were glad we had the opportunity to all get together! Sunday morning we all left for home and while we planned to get home that night we got stuck in a light storm but the roads closed in Wyoming at noon. Luckily we had a friend who lives in Rock Springs, Wyoming and they were kind enough to have us over for dinner and to play games that night, and the boys had a lot of fun playing with their girls. 

When the highways opened the next morning we saw the crash that had closed the highway that still hadn't been fully cleaned up, and even though it was an inconvenience to have the roads closed we were grateful to have been safe and out of harms way. We made it home late Monday afternoon, the boys did awesome on the drive, and we enjoyed our trip back to Rexburg very much!