Easter Weekend....just a tad late

The countdown to Easter at our house was full of excitement this year.  I'm not sure why...Ian and I don't make a huge deal out of it.  We don't even go to church (on Easter...or...ever, really).  But the girls were excited.  We dyed eggs the day before, which was fun and left their Easter baskets out for the bunny to find, fill with toys and jelly beans, and hide eggs all over the living room.

Something weird is going on with Blogger, and I can't correctly upload vertical orientation photos, so the super cute one of Cora is going to be left off, unfortunately.

The Monday after Easter Ian and I both took off of school so that we could head west to Lincoln, NE to visit my brother and his family.  That Tuesday he had his deployment ceremony, and that Friday he left for a training base somewhere stateside (maybe Indiana?) for a couple of weeks before he heads overseas to Afghanistan for what could be a year.  This trip was a lot of "firsts" for the girls: it was their first long car trip (we went to Des Moines - a 2 hour drive - once when they were about 9 months or so, but that doesn't really count), their first night away from home that wasn't at Grandma & Papas (either side), or Aunt Katie's, their first stay in a hotel, their first time hiking (which, unfortunately I don't have pictures), their first time staying up late to roast marshmallows, their first time to eat S'mores, and their first trip to a Children's Museum.  I think that's it for the firsts...Oh...wait, I forgot a highlight that really stands out to them as a fantastic memory of the trip: it was their first time to eat "colored cereal" aka - Fruit Loops.  That was something special :-) Here are some of the captured highlights from the trip. 

Here they are with their (soon-to-be) Aunt Sarah and (soon-to-be) cousin Kiley.

Eatin S'mores - Cora wasn't thrilled with the stickiness of them.

With Uncle Dave.  Everyone is having a better time than they look in this picture. I promise.

See?

  

Grocery store at the Children's museum, we only had a little over an hour there, and they could have spent five.  The first floor was set up like a little town: a grocery store, doctor's office, pizza parlour, vet's office, fire truck and police motorcycle, bank, etc.  The girls liked the doctor's office the best, because they had babies to play with there, and babies are the best. things. ever.

The lower level was cool, too, but unfortunately we found it just as we were getting ready to go - a large performing stage with costumes, etc.  Oh my, they were sad to leave it.

We're going to all miss Dave very much as he is  away overseas.  But we are proud of him, and looking forward to his return.