Easter Egg Hunt, Gillings Style...

GPS

7 Miles

8 Way points

168 Eggs and Even More Candy

The day dawned slightly threatening and cloudy, but nothing will make us give up our GPS Easter egg hunt...the kids wouldn't let us.

After we attended the Mountain View High School Easter Egg hunt, Dawn and I set out to place the Gillings Family GPS Easter egg hunt.  We are always a little worried that someone will find the eggs before we get back, but this year there was no chance, they were nicely hidden in the foothills of Orem canyon. The first egg is always hidden at the house, it contains coordinates to the next egg, which in this case was 5 miles away. On the way up we hit Macey's for a 25 cent hot dog lunch...healthy.

And so it begins...

ON average it takes 5-10 mintues to find the egg, they are not easily coaxed from their hiding places. Many times, we forget where we put them, that makes it even more difficult.

Like this one...

But when they find one, they get excited.

Everyone has a chance to lead, even the smallest...

The final location, very difficult to find and then get the eggs...

She was poked in the eye by a stick, but still got the egg!

The other kids left this one for the oldest.

After we went to the park and climbed on the rock fixtures.

And raced...

It was a little cold, but we loved every minute of it. You know it has turned out well when many of the children procalim that in some ways Easter is more fun than Christmas.

Easter Day 2011

Normally Easter is a day spent attending church and visiting family, however this year almost all of the kids were sick with a sever Bronchitis that in once case became pneumonia, so that was out. So we stayed home, it was actually very nice.

72 Deviled eggs, 72 eggs to decorate, 72 Cookies to decorate.

I must like the number 72.

The first round we did tie dyed Easter eggs, the kids quit enjoyed those...I think because they made and were a complete mess.

After dinner, while I was making the sugar cookies, the older three children taught the younger four stories about the resurrection...The tomb, Doubting Thomas, and Christ visiting the Nephites from 3 Nephi 11, in the Book of Mormon, then they went outside and using sidewalk chalk drew the stories they learned about.

Most of the pictures were of Jesus Christ under a rainbow...I guess I missed that one, but they loved it.

Next it was cookie time, they went crazy and then ate them. We have many, many left. We thought about taking some to neighbors... But hen I thought spreading Bronchitis is not a good thing.

Finally, their favorite part was decorating the monster cookies - go figure. We bought a kit at the store, but I think next years we will just do our own. What follows are the outcomes of that event.

I thin he had the favorites.

That is some sort of helmet.

She named hers.

As did she, but they were a family...two boys, one girl. I think that is how she sees herself. Notice the glint of cockiness in her eyes...

Dad and two kids, Dad has huge arms. He must mean me.

Who knows, but he loved it...his have faces on the back.

She could be the poster Child for egg decorating.

It was a blast just spending the day with the kids at home. No fighting...okay very little. They were all joking around and we even listened to the Rebecca Black Friday song...and danced a little.

Mountain View High School Easter Egg Hunt 2011

The Queen looks so skinny in this picture, I swear we feed her. She doesn't have an eating disorder either, she can shove it down with the best of them.

Normally I am not a fan of organized Easter Egg Hunts. In my past experience they are crowded, always very late starting (hard for a time Nazi), seem to bring out the worst in people (arguing, stealing eggs out of other's baskets, pushing little kids out of the way so their child can get something...it goes on) However, much to my surprise to day I saw none of that. It was very enjoyable, well organized and fairly close to starting on time.

The line looks long but it went very, very quickly. They opened the gates, we lined up around the track and it began.

Each participant was given a insulated bag for the eggs plus a smaller bag of coupons for free items. The atmosphere was very laid back and I saw parents making sure children other than their own were able to get a fair amount of candy.

My kids technique; run to the top of the outer hill and work your way down. It was a success.

The two oldest didn't participate..they just came to have fun, see friends. Another thing I loved was that some eggs had numbers inside which were redeemed for prizes later. Esther found one such egg and won cinemark movie tickets and a free meal at Iggy's sport grill.

We will definitely be doing this one again. It was organized very well, the kids were loaded with candy when we left (except for little man *second youngest* who pronounced he was too tired to hunt, and would not even pick up candy or eggs lying directly at his feet) and there was a general spirit of fun and sharing.

It was a great start to a long but very enjoyable day.