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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter Camping and Egg Hunt - Part 1 Traditions


I have collected these photos over time as I come accross them while posting about other things. I didn't realize how many Easter traditions we had until I started posting these pictures. The top photo is from about six years ago. We used to be better at getting a group photo but I realized that we didn't get one this year.




Our family has gone camping over Easter since before I was born. My earliest Easter memories are camping with my fathers family. One year my little sister got stung by a scorpion. We got stuck and had to use the winch to pull us out all the time. I remember one time waking up in the back of our 4 wheel drive and everyone else was out of the car except my dad who was driving. I looked out of the window and all I could see was the bottom of a canyon. I guess they thought it was a dangerous ride so everyone got out but because I was sleeping, I was left alone in the back. We obviously survived the cliff side ride. This photo is from three years ago when my oldest had about 15 lizards on her head.




Each year for years I take hand crank ice cream makers and ice and we make ice cream at the sand dunes. Here we are last year. (see post "Crankin-for-ice-cream" here: http://thesecretisgratitude.blogspot.com/2010/06/crankin-for-ice-cream.html)Other years jeeping, I swore that the car was going to tip over as we jeeped, or slide off sideways down the mountain. We all would get a chance to drive. Many times I remember my dad or brothers getting out and placing rocks on the road and then guiding us up or down the rocky road with their hands telling me which way to turn the wheel to get the tires on the rocks just right.




It was a great confidence booster for us to be able to look back and see the path we had gone down knowing we had many people who helped us down the rocky road. That is why God put us in a family unit I believe. Family is there helping us down the rocky roads guiding us sometimes helpings us constantly and other times just going down the same path in different order. Sometimes we lead and other times we follow.





One of the scariest times I had was about 12 years ago when we were driving down a very dry road and I was following my brother and the dust was so bad that I couldn't see anything in front of me. Until.... I saw break lights and hit the brakes just in time to slide into the back of my brothers suburban. I was driving a jeep at the time which was no match for the large bumper and it ended up shoving my radiator into my engine. No one was seriously hurt as I am a seat belt fanatic but it did teach me a great lesson.





When we are following others blindly, we may come to harm. We need to keep our eyes open and not follow without question or we may end up not being able to move forward on our own. Just like in life, we need to lead at times and follow at others but always make sure when following, that you keep one eye on the person you are following and the other on the destination.




Here are some fun photos of traditions we have done for as long as I can remember. We had egg hunts when I was a child while camping. I started taking bigger prizes for them to pick from when they got an egg with a number on it, they could only take one numbered egg. This is the prize table from this year. They line up in the order of the numbers and get to pick a prize according to that number. We used to have lots of kids under 12 but this year we only had about 12 as you can see in this photo. Next year it will be under 10. So, until we are all grandparents, we will have to find more fun activities to keep the older kids entertained. We had a fun one this year I will post about later this week.


We have taken a generator and large projector and watched movies on a sheet on the side of the trailer but we found that we enjoyed activities that help us interact rather than something we can do at home where we have no contact with others.

Our family enjoyed getting away from the phones and hectic school and work schedules for a few days. However, with the better towers, we can actually get cell service at spots in camp if needed. It is a different world now. We had a wonderful time and I am GRATEFUL for my family.

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