Christ is risen!!

Happy Easter, everyone! Last year I was very blessed to be invited to spend Easter with Drew, Hillary, and Hillary's family/family-friends in Spokane (really, thank you!). And it was funny to tell people that I was celebrating at my brother's roommate's girlfriend's family-friends' house. But there is nothing like Easter with my own family. This has been an awesome weekend filled with family time and lots of joy.

On Friday, we went to a great Good Friday service and the pastor talked a lot about dying with Christ to follow Him. It was about living a life of service and not of selfishness...something I need to hear at least on a daily basis. After the service, we got Cafe Mexicali, which I had been craving all week. SO GOOD. Then we went to see the movie, October Baby, which is a story about healing and forgiveness. It was perfect for Good Friday. A little bit cheesy but actually really well-done, I thought. It's also a big tear-jerker, but filled with good music from Andrew Belle and Ben Rector.

On Saturday, we went to soccer games of two of my cousins, Anna and John. It was super fun and made me really miss my soccer days out at at the Soccer Complex. It also made me think that I should coach soccer for little kids (like 5, 6, 7 year olds). Seriously, it would be so great! So I think maybe that's in my nearish future...

We also decorated an Easter cake and dyed Easter eggs. Our cake turned out a little funny-looking but Mom and I decided we'd perfect the art by next year. And dying Easter eggs...who knew it was so hard to make purple dye??? We made four different concoctions, different combinations of pink/red and blue and they turned out eggs that were anywhere between rust-colored to slate-colored (in my mom's words...but I'd describe them more as poop-colored).

 Purple attempt #3...

 Fail. What the crap??

I woke up this morning to a wonderful Easter basket and Matthew and Alex drove up in time for church. After church and some food preparations, we went over to my aunt and uncle's house to enjoy good food and great company. The weather was perfect. It was so fun to sit outside and visit with family and a couple new friends, and to watch the younger kids hunt for Easter eggs. And after that celebration, we got to Skype with Cathy! Even though technology sucks sometimes (Cathy's internet cut out probably 12 times and we had to start the call over), it was really great to be able to see her for part of the conversation. We miss her a lot! And Martin and Marielle. Really looking forward to when we all live in the same city...

 The Easter bunny knows the way to my heart.

 John loves having his picture taken and looking at it afterwards

 Extreme Easter egg hunting...

 Ridiculously good-looking

We got to Skype with Izzy too! I'll be honest, I expected her to pay more attention to me when she saw my face and heard my voice. But it's ok, she still is the cutest in all the land. 

Another exciting thing this weekend was that I got new lipstick and lipgloss! Cool. I decided I'm going to start wearing lipstick because I want to. It's bold and I like it. So I got a pretty bright pink lipstick and a darker shimmery lipgloss. So much fun!

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Raspberry Pie

 Covergirl Wetslicks Fruit Spritzers in Blackberry Splash