My Favorite Things from Easter Weekend with My Grandkids

There is something pretty special about gathering for holidays, and this Easter weekend felt especially meaningful. Not only did we get time together as a family, but we also got to spend four whole days babysitting our grandbabies—and honestly, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Time together with my adult kids is such a precious time to bond and strengthen relationships. Things come up in casual conversations that turn so meaningful. And I’m just so thankful for that right along with these bouncing grandbabies.

Babysitting My Grandkids

Are you even kidding me about how lucky it was to have these two sitting in my back seat?

I mentioned in my Easter post that Max and Abby went to go visit Elle and Carson in Palo Alto. I was SO happy for those two couples to be together in that gorgeous spot (including San Francisco where Abby had never been).

Oh how I love them.

Anyway, that is how it came to be that we got Murphy and Ada all to ourselves.

Oh we LOVE to have their parents around too, but there’s something different when you get to be in charge.

And there’s nothing quite like having time to snuggle up girls like these ones:

(Can you tell Bo was excited too? She knew her “spot” to be when Ada was eating.)

I mean, check out this video I posted on Instagram but MUST post here as well:

Is that personality or what? Our whole family has been watching it non-stop, and she did another great performance in the pool.

I love that Max is so into music and introduces this girl to all kinds of music, and quizzes her on who is singing.

Don’t be thinking Ada doesn’t have a bunch of personality too. This girl cracked me up when she got drama-sad:

She goes quite dramatically from throwing herself in sadness to all smiles.

When the College Girls Came Home

Of course I also adore my three college girls we got to have home.

Once we got the logistics all situated to get the girls here (Abby flew down with them and then took off to meet up with Max the next day), Claire decided she was going to come down too. Her boyfriend and his family were going to be coming to the desert. And also she just wanted to be home. Of course she missed her mama:) Then Grace figured out how to get off enough time from work to come along too. And Lucy, after a tiny bit of deliberation, decided she was dying to be home and see Bo Jangles and sleep in her own room for a couple nights.

These girls were, of course, very good helpers with the little girls.

Even Lucy hung with Murphy helping to make our traditional conference cinnamon rolls.

…in a swimsuit, of course. Because that pool was calling I tell you. We did have a little fiasco with the pool, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Lucy’s Logistics to Get Here

It is really tricky for Lucy to get to and from Logan. There isn’t really accessible public transportation to get down to the frontrunner (which she loves). So we’ve found a couple different avenues. Lucy always wants to be in charge, but asks for help when she needs it. This time around she found the sweetest girl from Utah State to bring her to the front runner station so she could get to the airport.

The only problem was that this girl who was driving her was late for an appointment. So she just left Lucy at the station to catch the train. Easy right? When you don’t have a vision impairment you just don’t really realize how difficult it is to navigate a new place like that.

Lucy FaceTimed me to figure out how to get to the train. She was standing on some grass and walking toward where the train was. Thank heavens for chain link fences that kept her safe from the track. Luckily as I was trying to guide her from our FaceTime call someone came along and asked if she needed help. To which she declined. Man that girl wants to be her own kind of independent!!

But eventually she let someone help her, got on the train, and met up with her dear sister so they could fly together.

Phew!

But I’m getting ahead of myself again…let’s start with the first arrival.

Abby and the Girls Arrival

It was pretty exciting to get these girls here!

We got right to work baby-proofing and getting things all set before we had to take Abby back to the airport.

Meanwhile Max arrived first in Palo Alto and these guys lucked out and got to go to a Warriors game:

There is something so special to a mama heart to see your grown kids reuniting.

Abby took off, and it was down to us four for a sunset walk:

Ada was not so sure how she was feeling about this, ha!

I scrambled around to get situated before the girls came, and put my rusty little-kid mothering tactics to use once again.

Sam & Claire Arrived

Sam and Claire arrived next.

And swimming was on the docket.

Sam took Claire on her first golf outing with his family before he split off.

Good Friday Concert

I got to take Murphy on a little date to a Good Friday McKenna Breinholt concert.

Lucy & Grace Arrived

Lucy and Grace arrived late that night and the next day the real party got started:).

Morning General Conference and a Solemn Assembly

We had a pretty cool opportunity to have a solemn assembly during the first General Conference session on Sunday to sustain a new prophet in our church. I love Murphy’s look in the photo below on the left, and then joining in on the right.

This is perhaps the only part of conference I got to hear live this year. There was so much going on with those little girls, and all the prep for Easter the next day.

Easter and Conference Preparation

We prepared for Sunday conference making our cinnamon rolls:

And coloring our Easter eggs. We weren’t overly creative this year, except for our little machine that puts on stripes the eggs that mesmerized Miss Murphy.

Lucy wanted to do it her own way, so she boiled some extras. Oh man I love how much Lucy loves tradition….still in her swimsuit because hey, swimming was next on the plan.

When Things Don’t Go as Planned

BUT then when we tried to open the pool we realized it wouldn’t work. Oh Dave tried everything in the book and couldn’t find any tech help available. So this is what our pool time looked like:

Had fun playing pickleball with these good girls of ours while the little girls took naps.

Oh, and a broken pool cover calls for red light, green light in the sprinklers.

The Mesa Easter Pageant Experience

That Saturday evening we headed to see the Mesa Easter Pageant under a gorgeous sunsetty sky.

It is, I think, the largest Easter pageant in the world and is attended by nearly 100,000 people each year. Yow.

This was Lucy’s main Easter request and I love that. We also happen to be best of friends with one of the guys in charge, who took us backstage to see the inner workings of how all this works.

It made me grow a much deeper appreciation for what goes on that stage each night. All those actors proclaiming joy in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

Here’s the view from the stage:

And the view from the very top where the angels dance:

I have to admit, we were a bit worried about how the little girls would do. I mean, it was late and crowded. I was willing them to be able to make it through (we were in the middle of a crowded row), and I wanted to stay together.

And do you know what?

They were rockstars. Murphy was mesmerized and Ada was so quiet and good playing peekaboo with her blanket.

Murphy had so many questions about Jesus and was honestly in awe, it was so cute.

When it was all over I just had so much celebration going on in my heart that they made it through with flying colors. And that that girl in the middle was so happy about being there.

I also had so much celebration in my heart for Jesus. And for what Easter is all about.

Watching My Kids Reunite in Palo Alto

Our married kids had some pretty great bonding time in Elle and Carson’s stomping grounds.

And this makes me so happy.

I love that when they visited Stanford, these two recreated this pose from when I took my kids to Stanford years ago:

Here’s the original:

Not sure where Elle is in that one though…

They visited the Golden Gate Bridge, my favorite.

But my favorite picture they took?

Right here:

They went to a concert:

And I loved how we all just kept sending photos back and forth so we could feel part of what each other were doing.

The Sweetest Goodbyes After Easter Weekend

On our last night babysitting I wanted to hold onto these girls forever!

But alas, everything has to come to an end, right?

Travel Home

The day after Easter, Grace and Lucy left in the wee hours of the morning to get back for work and school. They stopped at the DMV en route to take Lucy back to Logan so she could get her Utah ID and we celebrated at that little accomplishment.

Then Claire and I took off with the little girls.

Claire and Murphy took one flight:

(Their flight was delayed by an hour and a half and we couldn’t find Murphy’s shoes on the way out the door…but they made it with flying colors!)

And Ada and I took another.

I didn’t want to move after she fell asleep…is there anything better than a sleeping baby on your lap??

Max came and met us and it was so fun to see these two reunited.

And then such a fun reunion with her mama who was waiting in the car.

Happiness in a picture.

Then murphy mad a happy reunion too.

Love.

Easter weekends may look a little different now than they used to, and I do miss those days with all my little kids at home. But watching this next generation grow—mixed in with the adults my children are becoming—feels like its own kind of magic. And this one was a favorite.