The Day Before Easter Fun and Van Troubles

Charles showing Caleb an egg

Well, we decided to get our minivan up and running again even though we don't fit in it too well.  My husband's family wanted us to come and visit the day before Easter.  We were unsure of it because we didn't know how well our minivan was doing since we hadn't driven it in awhile.  We decided to spruce it up a bit and take it for a drive. Here are some pics of the fun day of egg hunting.

Ivy and Ashley egg hunting

Ashley found an egg!

Ivy looking for eggs

Caleb excited!

Kyle making a run for the eggs!

Ryan with Chaz in the background

Ivy watching her cousin take some dives

View of family hanging out by the pool

Caleb getting a kiss from his cousin

Ashley taking her shoes off to put her feet in the water

Ashley and Ivy (4 and 6 yrs old)

Charles holding Caleb while I take photos

It was such a good day and fun fellowship with each other.  We stayed for several hours.  I brought about 100 eggs for the kids to hunt and Melanie (my husband's sister) brought some also.  We let the toddlers out first, then Ivy and Ashley, then the older ones.  We wanted it to be fair but we didn't realize how fast the girls would be.  They got double of what the boys got so we'll remember that for next year!  :D  It's always so relaxing to visit and everyone gets along really well.  Nice, huh?  We left around 8pm and went looking for some church shoes for baby Caleb in to wear for Easter Sunday service.  Once we headed home we were tired and happy from the day.  While on the freeway the power went out on the vehicle and we had to quickly get over.  We managed to pull off into a gas station.  We had half a tank of gas but being the van had sat for a bit we decided to add some fuel injection cleaner and some newer gas.  We were able to start the van after a bit and got back on the road.  This time we stayed off the freeway.  We lasted a few more miles and the same thing happened.  We could have gotten much farther but was stuck in bad traffic from the baseball game being let out.  It was downtown so it's was a beautiful area but also attracts a lot of homeless people.  With 6 kids in the van and a pregnant mommy we didn't want to attract much attention that we were broke down.  One guy walked by and offered us a ride in his spaceship.  We kindly turned that one down.  A half hour ride was turning into a 4 hour one and we sat there just hoping the van would start again.  Sigh.  Finally a tow truck came to the rescue and my dad got us home around midnight.  We still had to get up early in the morning for church but the kids were all worked up from all the commotion.  Finally we settled down to sleep around 1am and the morning came very quickly.  I'm tired of van troubles and it was a bit discouraging.  

Chaz and Ryan wrestling while we were stuck on side of the road

Somehow we made the best of it taking goofy pictures while waiting in the van. LOL.  Lots of wrestling, singing, and goofing off.