Easter 2021

Covid continued, and there wasn't really any talk of resuming the annual Westra Easter gathering, which is not to say there wasn't some family get-together. The Jensen family welcomed Shane and Alicia's family for the Easter holiday, which took place on April 4 in 2021. It coincided with Conference weekend.

Here's a little picture peek at some of the fun they had ...

From a candy tasting, to coloring eggs, to overflowing Easter baskets ...

Wendy has more on her blog. Easter 2021.

Chris's crew had a hunt ...

He shared pictures in dropbox.

I'm assuming there will be pictures next year from Scott's family, as it will be little Lettie's first Easter in 2022. Surprisingly, Derek didn't seem to have any photos of their Easter celebration. The Blackham's pulled out the fluffy ears, filled up the Easter buckets, and made some yummy food for their celebration.

Happy Easter!

Easter 2020

 

Easter was on April 12 in 2020.  It was Covid Easter! This was still pretty early on, but the big family party was definitely off, as group gatherings were discouraged. Derek's crew came out and did a little Easter egg hunt (see the picture of Grandma with the eggs/basket).  Scott's family, with Mitch and Kemery, and Taylee and Alyssa surprised the folks with a "Happy Easter" poster and a Calla Lilly plant. They visited in the yard. Turkey had been the Easter dinner for them, and for Shane's family. They also came out, bringing back the truck they'd borrowed, some left-overs and gluten-free Monster cookies. Again, they did the 6' apart visiting.

Wendy has more Easter pictures from her family on her blog (Easter 2020). The Blackham Bunch donned the bunny ears and recreated the ol'Westra tradition of  boxes of cereal for Easter. This is the last year Callahan would be home, as he'd be getting married and moving into his own home in a couple months. Stalking Alicia's Instagram, photos of the Linden Westras decorating eggs were discovered.

Jen was busy blogging last year, so it's easy to look back at all the past years when we had big celebrations in the Westra backyard. Check out the EASTER label for 2019-1996 and even earlier!

Easter - 2019

Easter was April 21 this year. I think this may have been the first Westra Easter in a few years. It's hard with some families being further away, and not so many littles around. But this year, it was EARS and everything. Jen has been in charge of filling oodles of eggs in the past, but with only Derek's crew of kidlets and Integrity (Chris and Kim kidnapped her for this event),  Mom/Margie said she could handle it. She'd bought lots of candy for the LRC game and had extra. I think Ani was going on a no-sugar challenge though ...

What exactly is Keaton doing to Grayson's head in the picture above? 

Who knows! He's a weird kid. 

In fact, don't leave your phone unattended or you just might get some surprise pictures like this ...

Some years - this set of stairs has been FULL of grandkids.

It was fun to get together though!

Easter 2018 ...

Easter was April 1, 2018. Originally, I wasn't going to blog this year (or 2017). There wasn't a Westra gathering for the holiday either year. No egg hunt in the Westra backyard, fuzzy ear pictures or stickers on faces.  But then I thought, perhaps I'll note WHY there wasn't one ... just to keep the record straight. And there are a few photos after all ...

In 2018, Shane's family was in Cali... and Shane was in Amsterdam. Jensen's weren't going to make it up this year. The numbers had been dwindling, with only a few littles to look for eggs. Mom/Margie sent out a couple emails ...

March 23 ... Since Easter weekend is General Conference weekend this year, with no time to party between meetings, I guess we should skip this year's Easter get together and plan a family get-together here the 1st Sun. in May or last Sunday in April to celebrate the May birthdays. We could do April 29 or May 6. We only have D & D's 3 little girls to hunt eggs. All our little ones are growing up! New Haven moved the neighborhood Easter egg hunt to tomorrow instead of Easter weekend because of conference.

March 25... When we mentioned not having the Easter get-together here because of conference, Rick wrote and invited us to come there for Easter/Conf. weekend, and said they were off Fri. and Mon. So we decided to do that and will leave Thursday morning and return home Tues. morning.  We needed to be to church by 8:15 this morning for choir since they were having the Easter program today and singing. It was mainly a missionary farewell for a girl in our ward, but the choir sang a beautiful number, the piano guy did a cello solo, his 7-year- old son sang a solo, and we had our "ward orchestra." It consisted of 12 people---6 adults, 3 teens, and 3 younger children. Mostly violins. We really have a musical ward. A couple other violinists were out of town.

A few days later Wendy wrote ...

Mom and Dad arrived Thursday night and so I brought Dad to Josh's soccer game with me. The score was 2-0 and Josh scored both goals and so he was pretty happy about that. This is only rec soccer -- Josh really wants to try out for competitive soccer. He is a good little player and so I think he would do well in it. Rick and I were asked to interpret for a big musical production down here Friday night (The Lamb of God) and so that was a bit stressful trying to hurry and pull that together. Friday morning the post office called and said that Jared's call was here!! Rick and I were interpreting that night and one of Jared's best friends was working until 10:00 and so he set the mission opening for 10:30. He had about 25 people there. Saturday we all slept in. This is the first year we didn't bring our kids to the city Easter egg hunt. We just had our own hunt!! We really enjoyed General Conference today. Rick and my Dad and Jared went to the Priesthood Session at the church and then went to Carl's Jr. I think that will be a good change to combine the High Priests with the Elder's Quorum.The older girls hid eggs for Josh and Jenna and Jenna's friends, Clarissa and Audrey. We had a nice Easter. The kids got their Easter baskets this morning and then Rick and Jared made our traditional "Conference Crepes." They were even better than usual now since Jared works at the Crepery and was able to share his knowledge. We really enjoyed conference this weekend and were touched by the amazing spirit felt during the talks and music! All of the kids took notes -- even Jenna! During the break the kids dyed Easter eggs. Tonight we had a delicious turkey dinner and then Grandma and Grandpa played games with the kids while Rick and I skyped Janika and tried to figure out a time to go up North to meet Brandon's parents.

Here's a few photos from the other families ...

The Blackham family takes Easter pictures! ;) 

Email from Jen:

Hope everyone had a good Easter. I've gone a little overboard on the "nests" this year, making many batches of them. Really only Cooper, Cal and I like them, but we LOVE them. Not sure why I only make them at Easter. The ducks started laying just in time for Easter! True "hunts" each morning to see if I can find any. Coop accidentally colored his hand ... don't mix silly putty and playdough (he was trying to make the putty a bit softer)! The orange color did NOT want to come off!

Easter 2017

Easter 2017 was on April 16. No family party this year. Why? Mom and Dad (Margie and Lamar) had been on a trip to California to visit Shane&Alicia's family (blog post coming at some point) and just barely got back for the holiday. I suppose we still COULD have had it, but the family had just recently had an impromptu get-together (Red Robin, Yum) April 8th, 2017 and there would be group gatherings in June and July, so no official Westra Easter, backyard egg hunt or funny photos with fluffy bunny ears.

Mom wrote: March 15, 2017.  Normally we would be hosting our Easter brunch and egg hunt right now. Our yard looks beautiful for Easter. We had a wonderful time with Shane and Alicia and the kids. They took us many places to see the sights. We are going to Easter dinner tomorrow at Chris and Kim's.

To include some pictures on this post ... here's what the siblings shared (emails, end of year calendar contributions, etc).

I glanced through social media (Instagram) but didn't find any other Easter pictures from this year. 

From Jen:

Our Easter was quite low-key ... some years it's almost been like Christmas, but there wasn't much this year. Without the Westra party (prepping the eggs usually has me shopping and getting everything out at least a week in advance). I meant to pull the plush ears out ... but they are up in the shed now, and it felt like too much work for just our boys. So just some candy and a couple small toys for the little boys. A new "rubic" type cube that's been driving Keaton and Landon crazy (it's got no colors, it's mirrored, and the "squares" aren't all the same size either). We missed Callahan Easter morning, as he was in Idaho for a basketball tournament (they won it). The Reeses eggs are a favorite with the older boys (and me) ... I actually prefer the ratio of chocolate to PB filling over the regular cups. Cal and Keaton really like the Cadbury mini eggs ... those are ones so many people rave about, but they just don't tempt me. Just plain chocolate with a candy coating ... we love the FavorREDs jelly beans ... all shades of red. Red IS the best. I made our annual meringue nests once, and made some sugar cookie eggs that we decorated (we didn't get around to hard boiling and dying actual eggs).

From Wendy:

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. The girls had fun at their Young Women's activity dyeing eggs with plants, flowers, and roots. It was Josh's birthday Sunday, and since it is Easter weekend, we had an Easter-themed party. The kids dyed eggs and had an egg bash, went on an Easter egg hunt, ate lunch (hot-dogs and chips), opened presents, and ate cake and ice-cream. Jaiden made the cake and Janelle and Josh filled over one hundred eggs with candy for the easter egg hunt. To make the hunt more challenging Jared used the Westra trick and wrapped duct tape around some of the eggs and threw them up on high windows or other hard to reach areas. Happy Birthday to Josh and Happy Easter!! Josh was born on Easter Sunday 11 years ago! This is the first time his birthday has fallen on Easter Sunday again! Our kids hit the jackpot at an "invitation only" Easter Egg hunt Saturday morning sponsored by one of our realtors. They excitedly gathered up eggs, candy, toys, and prizes! They even agreed to take a picture with the Easter Bunny, even though these bunny costumes are always a bit creepy. Sunday we had an Easter egg hunt and Jared and Janika decided to put two snails in one of the eggs for a trick. Janelle was the lucky person who got the magic egg and we got a pretty funny video! Click here to see it: https://youtu.be/qE5lMtPuv-w

Easter 2016

Easter was early ... March 27

 There was a Westra Party but was small this year!
Just compare it to the crowd from last year (Easter 2015). 

(There's a cute picture of Derek's family in ears then too ... with one less little one.)

Not sure why we didn't get pictures of more people in the ears.

Here is Jen's journal entry about the day ...

Saturday morning I finished up some easter prep; filling eggs (I'd had the boys work on it yesterday, and we don't need that many this year so it was pretty easy) and made some chex mix. Hubs left early, jogging, and we picked him up on the way to my folks, which we did. He got about five miles in and said he felt pretty good. Only my oldest and youngest brother and their families were able to attend this year, my three other siblings didn't make it. Mom's Wii had gone out. I brought an extra power cord we had, and luckily that was the problem, so it was a fix. It was a nice afternoon, although a little chilly. Got to meet my new little niece for the first time too. The older kids hid the eggs and the two little girls found them. When they were done we had to send out the 10 and two 12-year olds to gather the rest (as there were too many for just the two little ones).  

Shane's family was in California. Jensens didn't make it up from St. George, and Chris and kids were helping Cassandra with a move, which was nice of them! So a small gathering, even though Mom and Dad invited Uncle Merrill and Aunt Lori out, and Kemery brought her significant other.

Here's some additional Easter pictures from this year ...

Easter 2015

Easter 2015 ... EARS to you! Jen brought the eggs, and the ears (and who knows what silly sunglasses and mustaches have to do with Easter Bunny poses, but they make for fun photoshoots). There are a few April birthdays too, and Jen was craving cake ... so throw in a little birthday celebration along with Easter! 

Easter was April 4th this year. The Westra celebration was Saturday, April 3rd. Wendy's family had come up earlier after a lot of excitement (Janika's mission call) ... the cousins had some extra time with Shane and Alicia's family, and extra Easter activities with Grandma and Grandpa. Dying eggs, and a New Haven Neighborhood Hunt, with REAL bunnies (both big costumed, and little live ones).

 ... then it was the group gathering in the Westra backyard for the annual Easter activities.

 Lots of little toys, trinkets and candy in the eggs. 

Big kids hide them, little ones find them.

Gather all the grandkids on the stairs for a group photo ...

And a picture of all the adults snapping away too!

... another picture tidbit from the time. 

Recreating a Derek/UpsideDownBaby photo

Back in 2011 D&D had the cute picture taken with Ani.

Now to create a similar scene with baby Layla.

Random Memories//Did You Know?

Grayson jogged over halfway to get to the party. He left before the Blackham Bunch, sporting a new Fitbit Surge (he ended up not loving it, returned it). He made it about six of the 10 miles before Jen caught up in the car, and accepted a ride for the rest of the way. He'd planned ahead and brought a change of clothes, and took a quick shower.

Easter 2014

 Got Eggs?

Easter at the Westras! Easter was April 20 this year. The family party was held the day before on Saturday. Looks like we were missing Scott's family and the Jensens... but still, gotta make sure there were enough eggs for everyone. They were hidden, then ... the HUNT!

... and then the haul!

 ... I think a couple of the boys enjoyed the foam stickers!

We got some funny bunny pictures ...

 ... and in bunny fashion, there was some jumping. Jumping rope! Grayson had a new phone/camera and caught some of these cool shots. We've had some Westra jump rope before (check out Cookies and Cousins  ... Ani has grown up a bit since then!)

That evening, as the Blackham's were winding down, they felt the house shake ... it was an earthquake. 3.2 in Tooele. Checking with the folks, they hadn't felt it.  Foreshadowing ... everyone would feel it in 2020!

Easter 2013

Easter 2013 ... it was early, in March this year. The Westra party was on Saturday, March 30. Jensen's couldn't make it up this year (see the Jensen blog for their Hunt and Easter), but a couple of the girls and Alicia's girls had an even earlier Easter at a Grandparent sleepover a couple weeks before.  2013 was the year Landon set up a drink bar and this classic photo of Margie/Grandma reading to all the grandkids is a classic one!

As with many group gatherings ... it started with an email:

From Mom: We all need to know what to plan on............. Chris prefers 1 p.m., no one else has expressed an opinion----------1 or 2 p.m.? Scott and Amy have a nice buffet dinner to go to and a Jazz game, so they would probably prefer early. Chris and Kim said they would bring rolls and a dessert--cake with layer of cream cheese, strawberries and glaze (kind of right?) Though just one or the other would be fine, as long as we know.  I've got turkey, ham, cheese, for the rolls, and will get tomatoes and lettuce, pickles, I have olives and some tortilla chips and sour cream and onion chips. We'll just keep it simple. Ice water for a drink. Jen, if we can count on you for most of the Easter eggs, you wouldn't have to bring anything else. Just watched the weather from last night's news (Sat. night). It said 62 deg. for Sat.'s party and just a slight chance of rain. So that sounds pretty good.

Another Westra Backyard Group Gathering ...

  

... time for the egg hunt!

... and opening the eggs to see what's inside.

The kids always seem to enjoy the stickers and toys as well as the candy.

... I don't think it was related to anything at the Easter party, but all five Blackham Boys got the barfies, the extended Blackham family too, and then Grandpa/Lamar did too.  Not to be left out, Mom slipped on some water leaking from the fridge and hurt herself, and the ipad. Looking at other emails from right around this time, it seems like other sickness was going around too (strep and/or flu). At least everyone was healthy for the family party, although Wendy had blogged about Jenna being sick for some of their Easter festivities.

Easter 2012

Easter was on Sunday, April 8 this year. The Westra party was Saturday, April 7.

 It was a slightly smaller gathering this year. Jensens didn't make it up, and Chris didn't have his boys. Callahan and Keaton got home late from a scout overnighter, so Jen, Landon and the littles came out and Gray brought the older boys when they got home. Jen tried a few new treats (Pinterest inspired) ... sprinkle rice krispie treats, M&M snaps, homemade oreos made with white cake mix (colored pastels) and an old treat (Mother Goose Popcorn, a recipe picked up in her elementary school years).

The older kids are always creative when it comes to hiding the eggs. Up high in trees and taped to windows. This year, there was a jackpot hidden in the cups on the serving table and Colton was the lucky kid who discovered it.

(https://youtu.be/iKZvtIBZBs0)

Lots of visiting in the Westra Backyard. 

The kids unloaded their eggs. Taylee got a gigantic penny!

Kim also had a surprise in her basket ... a proposal!

Right around this same time, D&D were moving,
and Mom was getting ready for knee replacement surgery.

Easter 2011

Easter was April 24th this year. The Westra family party was the day before, Saturday, April 23, 2011. Lots of pretty flowers all over the yard. Cooper had broken his arm just a few days before and was worried about the hunt, that he wouldn't be as capable with just one hand (and yes, it was his right-arm that he broke ... this was his second break in six months!) We told him that he could start with the "littles" group to give him a little extra head start before the other big kids came collecting. 

Here's a quick clip of Ani and her first Easter egg hunt ...

Looks like Cooper did just fine finding and collecting eggs!
That broken arm didn't slow him down at all. Got a bucketful!

Scott doesn't seem to think it's fair that his egg is so little compared to Camden's big egg! While the Blackham Boys have used Easter "buckets" instead of baskets for years, looks like other families had buckets this year too.

Who knew stickers would be such a hit ... on heads! Funny faces!

You can check out the Jensen Easter 2011 in Wendy's family blog ...

• Easter Egg Hunt
• Coloring Eggs 
• Easter Morning
• Egg Bash and Egg Hunt

Easter 2010

Easter was on April 4th this year ... a little early, and there was still some snow in shady spots. 

The Westra party was on "Easter Eve", on Saturday at 1:00.  

There were the usual CRAZY hiding places ... not really hidden, just hard to reach! 

Quite a few in trees too.

... now THAT is a basket full of eggs!

That's before the hiding, hunt and haul.

 The big boys ...  didn't gather eggs but still got some treats ;)

... and that was Easter 2010.

Easter 2009

 In 2009, Easter was on April 12. Chris's crew, the Blackham Bunch and Shane and Alicia and their girls were the grandchildren in attendance. D&D brought their doggy. There were oodles of eggs.  Landon decided he was one of the "older" kids this year (hid eggs instead of hunting for them). Cooper's bucket was overflowing, he couldn't fit any more in it! After the hunt, there was the opening of the eggs and a lot of visiting and eating in the Westra backyard. Kaden had his wrist in a splint ... in just a few years (Easter2011) Cooper would have to collect his Easter eggs with a broken arm in a cast.

I see Alicia with a camera taking pictures ... are there more photos from the day out there?

Here's a little "live" look ...

Easter 2008 ...

Where are the photos? 

Where's the party?

My gmail archive only goes back to 2009, so I can't check for emails around this time frame (which has been a help writing in retrospect on other blog posts). But looking at my own (Jen's) journal, other pictures from the month of March, the Westra Timeline of Significant Events, and general Googled info, I was able to figure some stuff out.

• Easter was early in 2008 ... March 23. 
• Mom and Dad ... were visiting D&D in Hawaii (left March 19,  so I'm assuming they were still there on March 23)? I'll try to get a blog post up about that trip! Mom ... memories?
• Scott's family ... was in St. George (met up with Blackhams/Jensens a bit while there).
• Blackhams ... were in St. George. They'd gone down Thursday (3/20) and Grayson ran the Pinewood Derby for Jensen's ward (Wendy was in charge. Josh took first place.) Both families participated in the Ivins Easter Egg Hunt, then Blackham's headed home. 

There are some Easter memories/pictures from 2008 on the Blackham Blog (okay, I'll admit they weren't there before I started this blog post, but they are there as I finished it *Ü*). The pinewood derby got a mention on the Jensen Journal, but no Easter activities ... although there seem to be a couple cute egg dying photos with some April anecdotes (included below).

Chris's crew ... do you remember what you were up to?

Shane and Alicia ... any photos or memories from March 2008?

Found this one in a S&A Dropbox folder...

Easter Party 2007

Easter was April 8th this year. The party was the day before on Saturday, April 7th, 2007.

Scott had rented a cotton candy machine for a ward party earlier in the day and was brought it to the Westra Easter party. Grayson also loaded up the bicycle built for two (I swear I have memories of photos of the kids on the bike. Can't find them though.) At the party we ate, then hid the eggs and let the kids have their hunt. Scott, Shane and Derek were funny hiding them, using duct tape to stick eggs way up high. Everyone laughs at how many eggs Jen brings, but it really isn’t that many divided among all the kids (and Wendy’s family didn’t come up this year).

Some Adria additions I found after I made the first collage ;)

and a cute one of a little Rella-bunny

An egg "oops" at the Blackham house prior to the party. Colton was "helping" ...

Here's a little video from the party ...

Easter 2006

Easter in the Westra backyard.  We were missing Jensens this year ... Wendy was pregnant with Josh, and she had him the very next day! Probably good they didn't come up for the Easter party ;) (Colton had been born in Dec. Cayson and Rella were on the way ... this was the most "prolific" grandkid time frame!)  And Callahan is in jammies ... any clue as to why? That's right, he fell into the pond. Jen was lucky she at least had some pajamas on hand in the car.

... and they're off to find the eggs!

As per usual ... Grandpa had taken the littles on a walk away, while the eggs were hidden. The littlest get to start first, to get the "easy" eggs before the bigger kids are let loose. There are always plenty of plastic eggs on the ground, in trees, hidden in silly spots (like the gas cap flap of the car) and HIGH up on the window ledges over the front door.

Here's a little old video from the day. 

(sorry, it's a little Blackham heavy, that is who was holding the camera ...)