A Spring Time Catch Up Post

Brace yourselves, folks. This is gonna be a long one. I'd intended to post several entries over the past few weeks but it's been busy (see below) and I've just combined them. So, here goes...

Let's start with Easter sunrise, over our woods. It was a wonderful Easter weekend with great weather, which we don't take for granted this time of year! The kids were outside all weekend long and I thought the sunrise was both symbolic and beautiful.

After the Easter service at church, we have an egg hunt for all of the kids. On the evening of Good Friday our small group filled all of the eggs and on Sunday morning all of the men from our group hid the eggs. The kids always have a ball with it! Here's a family picture, after the Easter egg hunt.

Here are the girls before church. Abigail's dress is a hand me down from cousin Mckenzie that she modeled for us many, many times before Easter. Hannah's dress is very special, a 'vintage' dress that was Mom's when she was a toddler. It got so many compliments at church and when everyone heard about the history, they thought it was so neat. I took plenty of pictures so that when she's older she can see them. And, we have some other dresses from "Polkie" (what Hannah calls Mom) for later in the summer.


On Saturday we had our Bridges family Easter at Andy's parents. It's always fun, with plenty of candy. Here are the girls, practicing hunting eggs around the house.

Grandpa with the boys, riding the four wheeler.

I love this picture! Just look at their faces! Hailey, posing as usual, Hannah ready to go and Andy, determined to race.

The weekend after Easter we went to Louisville to help with the big yard sale. Mom and Dad are almost ready to sell our childhood home! Andy and the girls and I are very excited that they'll then be in Franklin full time. Here are some photos of the yardsale:

The 'staff' was Annu (Ellen, our childhood babysitter and basically another sister), her sweet and helpful husband Dane, who held the days together. They got there before we did and I know we couldn't have had such a good sale without them. Plus Mom, obviously in charge, Sharon (my helpful and matter of fact mother in law. She was so good at moving things around to be easily seen, did a lot of pricing and kept Mom moving forward when she got tired. Then, Andy and Dad and I helped, too. The girls roamed around and recruited people to take them on walks or get them snacks.

Hannah in her 'packpack' and me, looking less than thrilled. We had so much fun though and the yard sale was a big success! Our motto for the weekend was, "Remember, the object is to get RID of this stuff!"

Sweet Annu and Abigail. They don't see each other often enough but somehow Annu has bonded very well with both of the girls. Abbs even got a French braid, and believe me, Annu's been braiding hair for a long time. I speak from experience! These two also talked about their ponies. Annu's first pony was named, Abby! No, we didn't name Abbs after her.

For the first time in Louisville, we stayed in a hotel. Here are the girls in their bathing suits, ready to swim in the hotel pool. Sharon suggested staying in a hotel and it was a really good idea. Mom didn't need a houseful to take care of and furniture is getting pretty scarce around there, anyway.

We returned from Louisville on Saturday evening, had a quick visit with Halseys on Sunday and I began packing for a fun trip with two friends from way back. This was my first mini vacation without Andy or the girls and I had a wonderful, restful time. I left home on Wednesday morning and got back Saturday evening, feeling rejuvenated and SO happy to see Andy and the girls. Here are a couple pics from the trip. You can see many more on facebook.

Here we are at the end of our Paramount Pictures studio tour

Hiking in the Hollywood Hills, it was a gorgeous day!