HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Easter is amazing... there's so much significance, so much drama, so much death and life... that looking for eggs and chocolate bunnies is a lot of fun!

Memories... I remember getting up SUPER early, dressing in a beautiful summer dress and putting on a new, matching hat and going to the very important "Sunrise Service" in the school field in Scappoose. I especially remember trying to wake up and the shock of the cold air in such a frilly outfit.

...I remember going to Grandpa and Grandma's to hunt for Easter eggs outside and all the cousins and playing in my pretty outfit and eating food that everyone said was sooooo delicious. I always thought it was all a little cold from everyone trying to coordinate the big dinner and then gather everyone at the same time. (sorry Mom, it's true!) I remember having to wait before I could eat my eggs until "the count" had been completed and all eggs verified "found". I remember loving to eat those hard boiled eggs with blue and pink stains on the whites. There were never enough eggs for me to eat. I always had enough chocolate, though. I horded my stash for the whole year, only eating my favorites when the next Easter was coming up for me to get a new stash. No one could touch my chocolate stash... (interesting! no wonder Jeremy always thinks I've got something hiding somewhere... and he's usually right!!)

We haven't decided decisively what sort of memories we want for our kids.

This year we had a chocolate hunt inside the house after church. That was because we heard it would be standing room only and went to the early service to get a seat.

This year Nana and Papa Jim came to church with us and joined us at home for a huge Easter breakfast of french toast made from homemade bread and strawberries, scrambled eggs and Canadian bacon.

This year Papa Jim helped the boys make a boat and tested it in a big bucket of water. Nana helped everyone have a lot of fun and stay clean.

This year we went to my grandparents' house for a delicious "dinner". I brought some of the food, and I thought it was all amazingly good. :-) The kids hunted for eggs outside with Elliott and Anna and didn't have to wait for "the count". They squished at least 1/2 their eggs, though. I know some of our family hold that dinner sacred and Uncle Bert has never missed an Easter. I guess I love the relationship with my grandparents and the oportunity to see my mom and dad while my kids have fun, too. I would have chatted all day, I think. That's my favorite part.

This year we stopped by Brian and Tanya's and met little baby Owen. What a little cutie!!! Judah woke from his nap to find his house full of kids! We had a lot of fun talking about this and that and nothing and babies and what to feed kids and how messy they can be and houses and finding lots to build on and all kinds of important things.

This year was a great year. If I had my wishes for future Easter traditions... there would be chocolate, as always, maybe a Passover meal or something to really pause and remember WHY, we would see Jim and Trish and Dad and Mom and the boys would feel the importance of family. I don't like burdening my grandparents, but I always want to see them and I love sharing that with my children. I love the Hunt idea, and I think I would try to do more, not less. There are always treasures to be found and Easter Egg hunting gets everyone in the mood for watching for them. Breakfast was fun. Church is important, of course. I guess I want it all. Only, next time I want to take a lot more BETTER pictures!!!!!

On April 1st, 2007, Shad Jeremy Armstrong was baptized at Abundant Life Christian Church.

We sort of skipped any fanfare and let this be a family event. Aidan stayed with us for the service to watch/witness, and some friends happened to join us. A lot of people have stopped me in church who were excited for all of us as a family to celebrate with our son.

Shad, obviously, was quite decisively thrilled!

I can't believe I got a picture at all, quite frankly. But that's OK, 'cause our church took some pictures, too, and is sending a video.

Congratulations, Shad!!

The Armstrong Family made it to the beach!!!!

We found some business we had to do out there, of course, and then off we

went to play quite spontaneously!!

The Oregon beach is unique, I think. The Idea of "beach" implies the ocean and swimming or surfing... unless your a normal Oregonian family. Then you know to pack coats and extra shoes because you'll be bundling up against the cold wind and driving sand. If you plan on picnicing on the beach, you plan on eating a little sand - "sandy sandwiches" - because the sand never stays near the ground. That nice wind caries it right into the next bite your taking. Children always come running up with some amazing treasure to share and shake sand all over the picnic area, even if you hide behind a log. If you do find a nice log spot, pre-check for broken glass or some unfortunate find previous visitors forgot. Oregon beaches are clean, don't mistake me, I love them, but lots of people visit at all hours and you might have little ones, like we do.

We hadn't been to the beach for 3 1/2 years. I know! It's hard to believe! But there's a serious story behind that. When I was pregnant with Camten, Jeremy's dad had come to live in Portland near us for his last year because he had lung cancer. Looking back we wish we had understood more of the serious march of cancer. At the time we were frustrated with the grim acceptance of Jeremy's relatives, and we were trying to approach the situation with hope and, well, basically denial. The day he died we were at the beach. It just happened to be the weekend we went to the beach every year, and we had visited with him the day before... needless to say, we were caught off guard and the thought of returning to the beach to play was a little too hard to swallow for quite a while. That's how this little trip came to be Camten and Trinity's first trip ever.

Such a wonderful, fun place should not have such difficult mental connections, but sometimes life is hard and that's the way it goes. Our kids will never associate the beach with Grandpa Bob, but for Jeremy and I, it's not so bad to have such an amazing place as a anchor for our memories of him. It's definitely a majestic place. We won't push ourselves to play hard or stay long, but we already started building new memories. The beach is an important part of living in Oregon, and our children really enjoyed the visit. So did Jeremy and I.

The reason WHY we went to the beach was so important, I hardly know what to write about our trip!!!

We found a great spot that was super sandy and fun to play at. We brought a box of yummy food to eat that got all sandy, of course. We dug holes and found a bunch of shell treasures. We carried out a whole bag of shell pieces, I mean, Treasures.

We found a seagul... and then 50!! We had fun sharing the bread crusts left that we couldn't eat and watching the "me-me-me" crowd. One almost took a piece out of Jeremy's hand - I'm not sure which one backed off, but I think it was the seagul.