Easter

Today is Easter, the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, his triumph over death, and the gift of resurrection provided by our Savior. I have wanted to honor and celebrate Easter more than just doing an egg hunt, so with Kent and Brandt, we have been using the Church's Easter Study Guide to make it a more meaningful season. A neighbor, Sadie Cusick, gave me an Emmanuel Wreath, a round wooden base with 24 different names for Jesus, with a candle for each name. It can be used at Christmas or at Easter. Sadie gave it to me halfway through December, so I didn't use it at Christmas. But I brought it up from the basement for Easter, and for the week leading up to Easter, we have been reading scriptures about Jesus and sections of The Living Christ, then lighting a candle for each name mentioned. It has been a nice time of day, after dinner, to read and think about Christ, the experiences of his last week before his death and resurrection, his teachings and his love. It has helped me focus more on the Christ.

There have been other, less spiritual celebrations, too. Justine Banks sold Easter cookies and among those I bought was a set of "decorate your own" cookies. Izzy and I frosted then ate cookies. We shared too! We were not total Easter piggies. We let Brandt and Kent have one. If you count, that means we each got two! I don't feel bad about that because we worked hard to decorate them. And they are delicious, so I was happy to have two.

Kent, Brandt, and I attended church. Kent and I sang with the ward choir. Neither of us liked the song we sang. It was an old song, very high Protestant church sounding, all about seeing sheep and lambs and thinking about the Lamb of God. I had seen a very funny reel on Instagram featuring lamb cakes, and for whatever reason, showed it to Kent just before sacrament meeting started. He found it incredibly funny and laughed until he cried. He said, "If you even look at me as we sing, I'll lose it!" Below are some pictures of what a lamb cake should look like, and some of the attempts people made, as well as the jaunty little tune the reel creator composed to accompany the pictures. Too funny!

"Easter time is with us once again, when little lambs appear on hill and glen. The time of year when anyone who bakes, can sometimes create most amazing cakes.

But sometimes even lamb cakes can go wrong, and so I've made this little lamb cake song reminding you that when you start to bake, it's not as easy as a piece of cake."

An example of what a lamb cake should look like,

and terrible fails.

 

 

 

 

 

Why are they green?

I've never seen a green lamb.

 

    

That one's on fire! 

We had dinner at my mom's house, followed by an egg hunt in the back yard. Dinner was delicious! My mother asked what type/s of meat we should have and we settled on four. (shaking my head) We had lamb, tri tip, chicken, and salmon. We also had gruyere potatoes, green salad, fruit, and cheesecake and cookies for dessert. It was yummy yummy!

Before the egg hunt, Blake and Luke taped money and candy to themselves and had the kids chase them around the yard to try and get either/or. I love a good cash cow chase and the chasers were highly motivated to catch their prey. I laughed and laughed as I watched them. Blake tripped and fell and was tackled, and Luke eventually ran out of steam. 

Cash cows

Chasers waiting for the Go!

The chase is on!

Cora came away with quite a haul.

Mila too.

We made all the kids look for eggs, even the big ones, so the adults hid eggs. We tried to make them tougher for the big kids, and some had a hard time finding their full allotment of eggs. But everyone had a good time. It was a wonderful Easter.

Eugene was getting tricky in the hiding, 

but needed both hands.

Brandt found his eggs.

American Ballet Theatre Studio Company

Bravo! for dance! Kent and I attended a wonderful performance of the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. The dancers are young, 17-21, preparing for careers in leading ballet companies. They are incredibly talented and put on a terrific show. There did a couple of contemporary numbers that I especially liked.

Girlie Lunch

Several months back, Cora wrote me a note and asked if we could go to lunch with the two of us and Isabella. That's an idea I could certainly support, and I suggested we go to today and invite Vika and Mila to join us. All were in agreement that was a fantastic idea, so Izzy and I picked up the other girls and we went to lunch at Zupa's. We talked and laughed, Izzy made a weird concoction and tried to get everyone else to have the same thing, and we enjoyed being together. I love all these beautiful young people!

Manti Temple Open House

The Manti Temple has been closed and undergoing renovation for the past several years. The open house is happening and Mikayla and I had planned to go with Mom and our kids to see the temple. We made plans a couple of months ago, but as the moment approached for us to actually attend, I had a complication. Our reservation was for tomorrow, Thursday, March 28th, but my boss, Alvin, has a mandatory training all afternoon tomorrow, so I can't go then. I asked if we could rearrange the schedule and go today, and while Mom, Brandt, and I could all do that, it was going to be really rough for Mikayla. She told us to just go without them and that they would try and go tomorrow, maybe.

We had heard the lines for the open house were ridiculously long. We even saw a picture posted on Instagram of the line snaking around the temple. Some people without a reservation waited four hours to get in. We hoped that would not be the case for us. We had a lovely ride down, chatting as we went. We got a good parking space and couldn't see a line, so we thought we might be in good shape. Turns out, we were wrong. We got into the standby line because although we technically had a reservation, it wasn't until the next day. We were talking about the line and the people in front of us told us the wait in the standby line was two hours. TWO HOURS! We didn't have two hours to wait. We only had two hours total. They suggested we just go get in the reservation line and pretend ignorance when we got to the front if they asked to see our tickets. 

We took their advice and went to the reservation line. That line seemed longer as it serpentined just like a line at Disneyland. But those with reservations were being let in more regularly than those in the standby line, so after only 45 minutes, we were able to enter the temple. 

The standby line with entrance at the white tent.

It doesn't seem that long except those in this line were not being admitted

as quickly as those in the reservation line.

Looking happy before we realized the wait was an hour.

The reservation line, also huge but moving faster than the standby line.

A VERY close up of someone with a bit of a Paco-stach

At the end of the tour, a volunteer offered to take our picture.

From the vantage point of the shot, 

you would think the volunteer was shorter than Freya and Thea.

We took a selfie for a better perspective.

A volunteer told us that very little had been done to the interior of the temple. The furnishings, paint, and general decor was unchanged. While Mom and I had both been to the temple previously, it was exciting to see parts of the temple we had not been in. There are murals all throughout the temple, many of which had been restored. There is an amazing spiral staircase and an assembly hall across the top of the temple. My parents were sealed to each other, and I was sealed to them in the Manti Temple, and we were able to see the room where that happened. It is a tiny sealing room within the Celestial Room, with the altar on a raised portion under an arched ceiling. I love how colorful the temple is, from the carpets to the ceilings.

We were delighted to be in the temple and pleased we were able to pause as we went along and answer questions Brandt had. We also were there exactly the amount of time we had.

The Chapel

I love the ceiling and the picture of Christ with children at the front.

The Baptistry

I like the oval font and think the murals are so unique.

Creation Room

How about that green carpet and the murals!

I love that there are dinosaurs in the bottom picture.

The Garden Room

The murals in the World Room were painted by Minerva Teichart.

They were restored during the renovation.

The Celestial Room.

So elaborate!

The Sealing Room where my parents were sealed and

where I was sealed to them when I was two.

Mom told me screamed through much of it.

How reverent.

The railings are not very high.

Peering over the edge made me nervous.

The staircases rises five stories.

The temple has an Assemby Room.

I asked a volunteer how often it is used.

She said rarely.

It will be used for the dedication, of course,

and is used for the ordinance worker Christmas devotional.