Easter

Happy belated Easter. Not sure if you know this but Easter is hands down my favorite holiday. Its fully based on the reason we celebrate...our Risen Lord, the precious and undeserving gift of eternal life with our Creator, God's overflowing love for us sinners...I LOVE Easter!

Let's do a quick rewind...on Good Friday our family and some of our best friends went to Surfside Beach. This was super exciting since it was Ryder's first trip to the beach to play and not just for a photo op. I knew he would be super apprehensiveness because that's how he is with new things. At first he stayed super close to us playing with his trucks. Thankfully Chayse and Carsyn are old pros at the beach and helped ease Ryder's fears of everything (ok having mama right next to him at first really helped too). At the end of the day Ryder kept wanting to go back and "swim" in the water. The first time he stood in the water and felt the sand moving around his feet he started to crack up. It was such a much needed relaxing day.

 Staying close to mama...

Baby steps...playing with Chayse and Carsyn. 

Bigger steps! Going out with Carsyn to get water for the sand castle.

Now he loves it! At first he would not go in the water without me right next to him so Kourt got this good picture of him loving the water.

Of course Ryder LOVED throwing the sand into the water. It kept him busy for quite awhile.

I forgot to mention, after his swimsuit got wet he didn't want to wear it...needless to say his was quite happy in his diaper. When I was changing it he got away from me and found sheer joy running around naked....boys...

 I can't wait to take him back to the beach.

We went to church on Saturday and then ate dinner with friends since we were working the ECB on Easter Sunday.

On Sunday after church we headed over to my folk's house for Easter lunch, Ryder's first egg coloring and egg hunting.

Please note Ryder's egg hunting gloves. By the end of the day he was a pro...practice makes perfect. This year he had two hunts at school, one at the office, one at our neighbor's house, one at our house and one at my folk's house. His loved opening the eggs to find his treats and money.

 Ryder kept wanting to crack the eggs over the cups. With a little bit of direction he was a pro!

 The master colorist.

 We love our toddler. He is so much fun.

The fruits of his labor.