Sunday, April 1, 2018 - Happy Easter! Church with Family; Late Birthday Party for Emmy; Visit with Heath's Family;

Sunday, April 1, 2018 - Happy Easter!  Church with Family; Late Birthday Party for Emmy; Visit with Heath's Family;


Happy Easter to everyone!  What a blessing to be able to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  For us it's extra special to celebrate at Pathway Church this morning where our son Jarred is Cafe Leader.  We attended the service there at 9:00 a.m.  

It was 30 degrees when we headed to Pathway this morning, so Dean dropped me at the front door while he parked Maxx - always in the back 40 so no one dings his doors or sides since he's so wide!  I went on in and I was greeted by a couple "Tony" and  "Diane" I think it was.  Diane walked over to talk to another couple and I was visiting with Tony.  I asked him if they had plans after church for Easter.  He pointed to his wife, who was standing with the couple, and said yes they were having lunch at their house, that his wife's parents were here from Pittsburg, KS.  Now, for those that know me, my ears immediately perked up - because Pittsburg is in our neck of the woods.....as he's saying this to me I notice this young lady walking our way with a phone like she's taking a picture...with a quick thought that she looked alot like my daughter Misti....I looked back to him about to say something about where we were from and Pittsburg was close to us....blah,blah...when I realized Haleigh was standing next to the lady with the phone pointed at me.   It was my Misti!...and she was videoing the surprised look on my face as I said to Tony - That's my daughter!  Once we hugged and I wiped the tears out of my eyes from being so surprised and overwhelmed, I explained to him that this was my daughter and granddaughter.  They live in Oswego, Kansas and we haven't seen them since the first of January because we've been in Texas all winter.  He said, well that explains why you all were hugging and such.  I just assumed she lived here so wasn't sure what was going on. 

I was totally taken by surprise.  And then I noticed Isaiah - my cousin Scott's grandson, Isaiah was also with them.  Haleigh watched Isaiah when his mom was working in Oswego.  She recently moved to Wichita.  Misti was able to bring him to church and I was so glad she did.  He's just a sweet young man and I was so glad to see him too.  Come to find out Jarred and Andrea knew all about this planned surprise!  After church they had a place set up to take pictures and here is our picture:

Back:  Misti, Me, Dean, Andrea & Jarred
Front:  Haleigh & Isaiah

Unfortunately, Misti had to get back to Oswego and couldn't stay to have lunch.  She needs to study and the weather forecast is calling for some sleet later today in southeast Kansas so its best they get back before they run into that.  

Dean and I went back to Bentley to change clothes and then we went to Applebee's for lunch.  Thank you to Heath & Casey for the Christmas gift card that we used for our lunch today.  We enjoyed it.  Afterwards we returned to the RV Park.  I straightened things up and did the morning dishes before setting down to begin work on today's blog post.  

We are going to Andrea's Uncle's home (Bob & Elaine) once all of the church services are over (they had a total of 3 services this morning), for Easter dinner and to celebrate Emerson's birthday.  Jarred, Andrea and Emerson were in Colorado on her birthday so they haven't celebrated with family here yet.  I'm glad it worked out that we are here so we could participate as well.  It will be the first birthday party we've been able to attend for her.  While typing this we received a text they were on their way, so we were out the door pretty quickly.

What a fun time - great people, great lunch and oh yum, the desserts!  And the star of today's events was something else.  Emerson came into the room with her eyes closed, because her main present was too large to wrap or hide.  

She ran straight to her new vanity and play makeup.  It was so cute watching her.  It was apparent she has watched her Mommy more than once.  She was using her brushes for all the right things - eyebrows, cheeks, contour, etc.  So cute!  

She also received a really nice Vera Bradley duffel bag from Granny & Papa Braitsch which will be wonderful for their travels.  Uncle Bob, Aunt Elaine, Steven and Suzanne gave her a big Easter basket full of goodies - candy, stuffed bunny, 2 shirts and pajamas (with matching pajamas for her baby doll).  

Then we watched her hunt for Easter eggs in their basement.  If it was an egg she would pick it up and put it in the basket but if it was something else - she would just lay it down - it wasn't an egg!  It was pretty cute!  She just couldn't bring herself to pick up something that wasn't an egg if she was doing an Easter egg hunt!  What a fun time for her and for all of us to see the joy in her little eyes.  

It was almost 4:00 when we left, so we drove straight to Heath's to visit for a little while before heading home for the evening.  We had a really nice visit with Heath and family for about an hour.  Heath will be late coming home from work on Tuesday evening so we are going to pick the boys up from school and take them to dinner  It works great for him as Casey will be out of town.  We look forward to spending the evening with them and hopefully making things a little easier for everyone.

Back at Bentley I worked on this blog post and we planned to watch American Idol later.  I got busy with the blog and trying to read a few emails.  Dean started watching a show and just forgot, so we are thankful we now have the opportunity to watch it at a later date with our Firestick!  It's all good!