Our Easter (and Anniversary)

We spent a beautiful weekend at my parents' house for Easter.  The weather was beautiful and the Wingers joined us on Sunday for a feast and an egg hunt and good family time.

Our schedules have been so busy with school and sports and dance and sickness and work and church that we haven't had much time to spend together.  Lori and I live 15 minutes from each other and have barely spent any time together all school year.  Another reason that I'll be happy when summer comes!  I miss my sister!

Here's the lowdown on our holiday weekend.

Dying eggs, a time honored tradition.

The Easter bunny showed up!

Posing with Papa, who was busy at church preparing and serving pancakes and sausage to the masses.  Yum.

The brood pre-hunt (including Dylan's sweet little girlfriend).

Lilly girl!

 

Cuddled up with Dad.

 

Someone else has been missing Aunt Lori too. 

Easter Sunday was also Rich and my wedding anniversary!  Twelve of the happiest years of my life have been spent as this man's wife.

Truth be told, we both forgot about it.  Lol.  Between me getting a new car and both of us preparing for Easter and everything in between, it totally slipped our minds.  No worries, though.  There is no love lost on the two of us.  As I am reminded by our friends, it's kind of disgusting how crazy Rich and I still are about each other.

We view our marriage as the foundation upon which everything else in our lives is built.  And we have learned to give it the priority it deserves.  We have our highs and lows just like every couple and have worked hard to maintain our passion through the years.  We have both made mistakes along the way (me more than him, I am certain) and will again, I have no doubt.  But we have come to realize that a marriage is a living, breathing, changing thing and, as such, is vulnerable.  So we both committed ourselves to protecting and feeding and honoring it.  It's as tough as it is rewarding.  And is not for everyone by any means.

But it works for us.  And it works very well.

The work is so important.  But I also strongly believe in love's magic and divinity and destiny.  If you know me, you know that love is pretty much my #1 thing.  A favorite pastor of mine once told me that when your marriage is going through rough times, when you're feeling far from your spouse - you both need to remember your "first works".  Which means remember what about that person made you fall for them in the first place and what about yourself made them fall for you.  (I believe that comes from Revelations in the context of straying from your faith, but it works in this context beautifully.)  I think one of the things that makes our marriage so special is that we're never very far away from those first works.  We keep them close at hand and reinvent them often, which deepens what we have.  It's easy for me because Rich is a gift and I'm reminded of that daily just by him being who he is.

Plus he's very cute.  :)

As for him...I have no idea how he does it.  I'm kind of a pain in the ass. :)

So happy Easter (and Anniversary) from this blessed pain in the rump.  I hope yours was a special as ours!

Easter, An Anniversary, The Sicknesses and The Toothfairy

Another blog busting at the seams.  I just can't seem to catch up these days.  Just ask the single load of laundry that I have washed three times because I keep forgetting to put it into the dryer.

Eck, the laundry.  How I loathe it. 

Last week was a doozy for the Coles.  We were all sick with something at some point during the week and/or previous weekend.  Rich had a touch of something a couple Sundays ago that lasted a few days.  Then it was Lena and Sam for a couple of days.  Then mine came and wouldn't leave.  Fevers, sore throats, upset stomachs, boxes of tissues, barrels of Tylenol and sinus medicine, gallons of soup, and too many days missed at school and activities and church and work.   

Oy vey. 

Today we all seem to be securely on the mend and I'm refusing to acknowledge any further symptoms from anyone. 

Denial...in the end it's the only way to combat the constant barrage of villainous viral infections.

Other than the fever fairy who has taken up residence in our house lately, the tooth fairy also stopped by for a visit!  Yes.  That's right.  Sam's snaggle tooth finally came out!

Hooray!

He has two other loose teeth, so we'll see if those take as long to come out as this one did.  He looks so cute with his big gap.  Love this boy.

We went to Mom and Dad's this weekend for Easter and had an awesome time!  Lori's family was there too and even with 6 adults, 5 kids, and Lilly, the world's best dog, that big old house still held us all very comfortably.

Meals were devoured, expeditions of the egg and old wedding dress varieties were had, old friends were embraced, rockets were launched, church songs were sung, ball was played, food was prepared, Mom and Dad's 45th wedding anniversary was celebrated, conversations and laughter were in endless supply...

As were the love and joy that always surround us when we are all together. 

(Notice how I seamlessly glossed over the children's exhausted laments, mealtime meltdowns and sugar crashes?  That was purposeful.)

Easter morning.

Church pictures. I think Sam is still trying to figure out how to smile without a front tooth.

There's a good one.

 
Egg hunt!

Rich provided a bubbly environment for the egg hunt...and posed for a few bubbly model shots. :)

Love...

Sisters...with a wrinkle filter in place! Yeah!

Our brood.

Anniversary flowers!

Lori recreated our Nan's coconut Easter bunny cake!  It was perfect, of course. 

The roots of this family's tree...On April 20, 1969, Mom and Dad pledged to God and to each other that they would build a life together, respect each other, take care of one another, love each other through all life had to throw at them. And so it's been over these 45 years.  They have traveled hand in hand over the peaks and through the valleys of their lives and have continued to honor their love and commitment to each other every step of the way. The beautiful life they have made together...the beautiful way they share their days and have loved each other and the rest of us, even when the road hasn't been easy...they have "trusted steadily in God, hoped unswervingly and loved extravagantly". 

That is marriage.  That is love.  That is my Mom and Dad.

And this is silly Sam...

Lovely little Lena girl...

Looking too grown up.

My beautiful mother.  Seriously, look at her.  That's what many years of clean happy living gets you, folks.  Flawless skin, timeless beauty and a joyful soul! 

And there it is.  Lori's wedding dress.  She swore Mom has had it all these 20 years.  Mom swore she didn't.  And after a dark and dangerous expedition to the WAY back of my dad's closet, lo and behold, she found it!  Of course we made her try it on and it very nearly zipped all the way up!  My ageless, beautiful, skinny sister.  The dress had come unzipped here, but I still made her pose with Lena, who was wearing Lori's veil and beaming with excitement over her aunt, who looked like a princess.

Love that girly girl of mine!