Happy, Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of our friends and family!  We hope you are all enjoying a nice dinner together.   We will join in our hearts from afar.  

We have been enjoying our four day (yes!) Easter weekend so far.  Even though Eric has spent most of Friday and Saturday grading essays I'm sure he now wishes he hadn't assigned, we've been able to do some fun Easter activities. 

Friday we were hoping to start the weekend out with a trip to a petting zoo at the mall, but tons of wet, icky snow with wind kept us home all day.  We hid Easter eggs a few times inside the house; Annabel has been insisting to keep the plastic eggs separated.  I guess she wants to hunt for twice as many!  I was hoping to find a large, organized egg hunt, but there didn't seem to be any in town.  Maybe next year I'll have to organize my own.  

This kept her entertained for quite awhile, but I'm not sure how safe it was as the main reason we were washing the eggs was due to them having an odor of gas or tar or something!

Playing at church before the musical last weekend.  She is really interested in letters lately.

Displaying one of her new long bibs made by Grandma Paula.  She requests this one saying "E-I-E-I-O," because the bottom has a barn on it. 

  We made homemade play dough.  It brought back memories of my parents making it for us.  She is sporting her new jammers she received for Easter from Grandma Paula.

She knows how to double-fist for Easter....egg in one hand, carrot in the other!

Saturday we greatly enjoyed a puppet show.  It was a half hour showed called Magical Munsch, based on the children's books by Robert Munsch.  We were unfamiliar with them since the Canadian author's stories seemed to have not crossed the border (except for I Will Love You Forever).  It's a wonder, because they are really funny!

The center of her egg is "re-row." ("blub, blub" bib made by Grandma).  Blub-blub is how Annabel says fish.

We left for church way later than planned, even though we were up fairly early for the 11 am service.  Does this happen to anyone else?  At the last minute we were scouring the house for Annabel's shoes, only finding one. 

Annabel liked looking for her Easter basket, even if we practically had to tell her where it was.  I look forward to watching her surprised expression every year.  So fun!!

We are now having a relaxing afternoon (actually, I have been making Raspberry Jello dessert {and, no, it is not a salad} for over an hour with no end in sight....how many steps are there?!! Mix this, then let that set for 30 min, then make this and let that set on that for another 30 min....I'll be lucky if it's all set by evening)  Our pastor and his family invited us to join their family Easter.  His children are all around our age and have little ones, so it should be a nice evening. 

Canadian Winter

Overall, winter was so bitter cold this year that we didn't spend a ton of time outside.  I'm so glad we did get out one weekend in February where the snow was beautiful and the temperature was mild.

I promise she was excited to finally go sledding. 

Thankful for friends who let us borrow an awesome snowsuit and Stonz boots!!  The suit worked great and the Stonz are just an excellent product.  Thanks, Nancy and Matt.

Pure sledding joy.

We walked through the Forestry Farm (zoo).  This lynz would have attacked Annabel had there not been a fence.  He growled and lifted his huge paws up at her. 

Annabel was running ahead and tripped, but didn't want her hands to touch the cold snow! 

Sometimes the long winter days inside get a bit long, so Annabel knows how to liven things up.  Cue Macho Man Randy Savage

Annabel LOVES this game that her and Eric invented.  One of them runs to a wall and stands really close it with their hands behind their back and then the other follows.  It goes on forever with lots of giggling.  I told you we are are just FULL of excitement around here.

Heading to daycare on hopefully one of the last snowy mornings.

Practicing Aloha

Winter in Saskatoon this year was bitter cold, so we were so thankful to break away and go to warmth! We met our friends Megan, Josh, and Meredith in Maui, Hawaii over Eric's spring break week. We had a wonderful time. Annabel loved the weather, loved running everywhere, and experienced many new things such as grass!! When she first saw grass she pointed at it, did a little grunt, and then laughed. Kind of like "what's this silly stuff?"

Taking a Maui Onion chip and fruit break on a very, very curvy road trip on the Road to Hana. Later we tried coconut milk ice cream.

A black rock beach

Baby Beach
Shallow and calm; perfect for toddlers!

February is whale season in Maui.  From the beach, we could watch humpback whales splash, breach, swim, and dive.  They were sooo close!!  One time we watched a pod of three swim between two kayaks!!  The whales were by far my favorite part of the trip. 

Eric snorkeling

Pizza at Honu, named after the tortoise reserve near the shore.  During dinner we saw a few heads pop out of the water.

Megan and Meredith

Annabel loved running on the pathways (and the resort hallways!)

At first she wasn't too sure about sand touching her skin, but I see she warmed up to it.

With Annabel's fair skin (and my own), we loaded on sunscreen and limited our beach time.

The villa had organized fish feeding times which Annabel enjoyed.  When we walked by this area, Annabel would make her high-pitched fish sound "blub, blub, blub."

Tuckered out from swimming!

Annabel's hair loved Hawaii.  It sprung right up!

We spent a lot of time in the morning sitting or eating breakfast out on the lanai, enjoying the warmth and the sounds of the birds.  We were up about 6 am every morning, which actually worked great as then we were tired around 9.

I mentioned the hallways as one of Annabel's favorite things.  Well, the elevator was another.  She stood towards the back and would dart out as soon as the door opened.

 

 

 I couldn't believe how daring Annabel was on the water slide.  I bet we did this 20 times until she was shivering and I told her to say 'bye bye' to the slide.

We enjoyed a few servings of shave ice and fish tacos. And loved the gelato! Annabel tried her first delicious papaya.  I especially like the guacamole and pineapple.  We ate quite a bit of fish and a few Lava Flows by the pool.  Annabel started talking more during the trip and for Meredith and Josh she said Mimi and a very German sounding Jocque.  She continues to say Mimi-Jocque a lot, including every time she puts on her blue shoes, her hat or if we talk about swimming or mention Hawaii.  I think it's fair to say she really enjoyed them and her time on the island.  And, we are confident that when she says Mimi-Jocque she also includes Megan. We give many thanks to Al and Susan for allowing us the opportunity to stay at a beautiful place in paradise.