celebrating easter {2011}

Just when you thought the Easter posts were behind us - here we are!

Drew, Asher and I traveled to New Jersey for the weekend to celebrate the holiday with Drew's family.  We had so much fun!

Quick peak of Asher from last Easter - so hard to believe how much he's changed!

On Saturday we all headed over to a lunch with the extended family and just had to show off Asher's Easter duds.  Is he the definition of dapper or what? 

I'm sure some day he'll hate me for dressing him in this outfit, but if not now, when?  ha!

{Of course, the one photo where Asher is smiling with me would be out of focus.  sigh.}

Asher got some really fun Easter treats while we were at the party! 

The plan was for there to be an outdoors egg hunt for the many kiddos, but it was a rainy, yucky day so everything got moved inside.  Asher loved searching for the eggs and throwing them in his bag.  Unfortunately, he got a little enthusiastic and transitioned from collecting eggs to simply cleaning up and started putting toys off the floor into his bag.  Love my little neatnik.  :-)

On Sunday we got up early and headed to church to celebrate the amazing Resurrection!  I love Easter - every year the awe of what happened all those years ago hits me afresh.  Jesus not only died for my sins {my sins!} but rose from the dead 3 days later.  Rose. from. the. grave.  That's crazy and amazing.

YAY!

After church we headed home and Asher opened his Easter basket.   

Well...he received an Easter basket.  Grandma and Grandpa have a bunch of toys that are new to Asher, so he was really distracted by those and didn't care two hoots for the basket of fun stuff that his mama lovingly put together.

Now that we're home he's been enjoying his goodies much more.  :-)

 After lunch Asher got to visit his Great-grandparents and uncle Bob.  Ash has been very stranger shy recently, so getting photos of him with new people is tough - hi Drew!  hi Emily!  We're in all the photos!

Yesterday we drove home and today I get to start the piles of laundry.  How does 3 days away create so much laundry??

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well!

hail to the chief

While Drew's parents were in town we decided to take a trip into DC to see some cherry blossoms.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate with us at all - it was dreary and cool.

One good thing about the less-than-stellar weather was that the crowds were a bit smaller than they would have been otherwise.  While we were walking we went past the White House and were told that the Spring Garden Tours were happening today, so we got some tickets and went on in.  I've never seen the White House from any distance so to see it really up close and personal was amazing!

We were able to tour the entire south lawn.

The fact that Asher wasn't bouncing around the stroller in excitement over being around so many people is a true testament to just how yucky he was feeling.  He normally loves this kind of thing, but looks less than thrilled today.  Sorry, buddy.

The Marine Corp band played lots of fun band music for us to tour by.

A few cherry blossoms!

The Oval Office

Sasha and Malia's swing set - Asher really wanted to take a turn on it.

The Washington Monument is so amazing against a blue sky, but unfortunately we didn't get that shot on Saturday.  You can still see it a little bit!

{see!  It really can be lovely on a nicer day!  I took this on another visit...}

All in all this was a really special and unexpected surprise during our visit.  So fun!

With Asher's new ear infection we didn't want him out in the cold too much so we cruised around town a little bit, but then headed over to the National Aquarium.

Quite a few people had told me that the National Aquarium isn't a great deal because it's super small and you have to pay to get in {so many museums in DC are free that it's hard to pay!} but this ended up being the BEST choice for us!

The aquarium was small, but it was also completely empty so Ash was able to walk around and get right up to the glass to see the fish.  Perfect!

team loyalty

At 15 months Asher already has a strong sense of loyalty to his Daddy's team.

I love Asher's shocked/scared look at being put in a Phillies cap.  :-)

Sorry Pop Pop, I'm a Yankees fan.

Remember?

Here, you wear it.

We can still be friends.

swinging

It's suppose to snow in DC on Sunday.

SNOW

If that isn't a 4-letter word, I don't know what is.

In an attempt to soak up all the warmth we can while here in the south, Asher and I headed to the playground yesterday {it was 80 degrees - sigh}.  This boy loves him some swinging.

Although you can't always tell that he's having fun by his expression...

Most of the time he looked like this.  And believe me, when I tried to take him out there was a lot of grabbing the swing ropes and crying.  ha!

We were actually able to go swing at the church were Grammy works, so we got to visit with her for a few minutes.  Someone was getting a little hungry for lunch by this point and not being very smiley - guess who.

As a complete side note - how cute is Asher's little dino outfit?  Yay for the clearance rack last fall!

I'm a big believer that no man {young or old; guns or no guns; 'The Situation' or not} should go sleeveless, so A is sporting a onesie under his bitty tank top.  :-)

Swinging and warm weather {minus tank top clad men} is the best!