Happy Easter!

Regretfully, due to the number of children in our family under the age of 5, we've been unable to continue the Williams family tradition of discharging firearms while hiding Easter eggs. That being said, we were able to maneuver ourselves into firing range of other people who are keeping that tradition going. And we were able to work in three egg hunts in for the kids.

We can't take credit for this fist picture. Thanks Breanna! More on that later.

But first, the warm-up fun:

Hunt #1: Bedroom/House

Okay, it was pretty easy.
Chocolate marauding break:



Hunt #2: Fossil Beach with Ryan and Joe

Incidentally, Ryan found some fossilized hermit crabs that were pretty awesome.
Hunt #3: Riley and Covey's Casa

A lot of intensity with the hunters. Until they found Trixie, anyway. But more was in store!

At the after party:

Getting the band back together.

I know what you are thinking. Those are awesome pictures! Yep, they are. In other words, we didn't take them. We send a big thanks to Riley and Covey's mom Breanna, who happens to be a highly talented professional photographer! It's always nice to have artistic friends!

We like to hope that some of it rubs off on us. Hoping is fun! Not as productive as we might like, though. Yet.

And finally, Easter Dinner at the Power House.

Happy Easter! Here's to spring, and rebirth! And the celebration of life and living!

This last one is for anybody who disagrees.

Big Mission Western America Phase

Spent a few days in Boise, then a day at Anthony Lakes, then Missoula, then Portland then the Bay. Lots of driving and some flying in between. It was great to see family and some old friends. Good for the soul. (Thank you, Mr. Seger, for saying it well.)

And photos? Hmm... We are kind of waiting for pictures that anybody who happened to be with us might have taken. Thanks to Tyler Adams for sharing his pictures like the one on the right. Unfortunately, we took no shots of Boise. (We are counting on Grammy-cita for those! Thanks for the Idaho/Oregon adventures Grammy-cita and Gramps D!) But here are a few we took before our camera power ran out:

Missoula:

Pritchard's beautiful baby:




Thanks for all the good times, Nana and Grampa Bill! The kiddos loved the plethora of dinosaurs that had been arranged for their arrival.





Missoula's going big time!



The old Milltown haunts. Boppa's clerking days, back when it was Finky's Foods. Clerks describes the scene well. From New Jersey to rural Montana, it's all the same!



This is slightly different, too. Boppa's handywork in the background.




Here are the kiddos being very quiet at Jake's house.

Later, they were also being quiet, and managed to cover the Neal's entire upstairs with a fine layer of shredded styrofoam. Certain parents were so upset that we almost canceled our highly anticipated zoo trip. But, we overcame it. The zoo was awesome. Look, two large hairy mammals with offspring!

The only shots we got of the Gilders.



Gilds, and Bear. We didn't get Jo-Jo and gestating Jackson on film, but they were there, too. We crashed in their nest.



Given the strenuous nature of our itinerary, there was a lot of crashing in random places. Airport floors were particularly popular.





Checking out Voo-Doo Donuts in Portland. Pretty much a mandatory stop. Any place with slogans like "The magic is in the hole" and "Good things come in pink boxes" ought not to be missed. In addition to the slogans, their donuts are pretty tasty, too.







Fortunately, they have two locations. With our buddies, we weren't about to stand in line here!
We love donuts, but come on!



A line like that could lead certain family members to defect to the nearby Magic Garden.

Lots of cool, organic, and fun things going on at the co-ops and coffee shops in Portland. Here's Jake enjoying his local coffee co-op place.


The new beverage of choice is Kambucha. DeWayne was on it way back before it was cool. When it was still called immortality tea. Nothing like fermented fungus drinks brewing in the fridge!

Portland is awesome! We love it! If we had to live in a big city, it would definitely be Portland. Thanks to Jake, Megan, Lori, Jen, and Chris for letting us visit!

After Portland, we went to the Bay Area and visited friends. We also got to wander through Google land, which was interesting. Our picture taking during this portion of the adventure was non-existent. But we got to visit with Matty, Kevin, Mino & LB, Gilds, Jo-Jo, and Chi-Chi. Good times! We spent most of our time in Los Gatos, but also some time in Davis.

On a side note, the Toyota Sienna is pretty awesome. It was our rental vehicle during all the above adventures, and it was really great. I can see why minivans dominate the family scene.

Then, it was on to El Salvador!

Huxley Reeve Zinn's (First) Big Adventure

Wow! It has been a blue sky maternity/paternity leave, for sure. After two weeks of enjoying Kodiak and HRZ, we took our show on the road. Huckleberry Pie, Paxson Boodah, and Stoko Loco Joker handled the trip with flying colors. We visited many friends and family members in two countries (El Salvador and Honduras), six states (Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, California, and Texas). To everyone we saw, thank you for the adventures!

And to top it all off, we've been welcomed home with the most glorious Kodiak sunshine you could imagine. We are entering our 6th straight day of cloudless skies. Feels like summer! Actually, far better than most of last summer! We are all sporting Kodiak sunburns, after spending the last few days at various Kodiak beaches. Yes, sunny and 45 is our version of paradise.

Back to our trip... we had much to fear as we traversed security in Anchorage with two screaming toddlers on lock-down, and a slightly colicky baby in our bjorn. But our fears were unfounded! All the flights were a breeze, amazingly. The kiddos slept or were happy for most of the long flights. And Huxley's colic seemed to disappear as soon as we were on the road.

Pictures, pictures, pictures... well, that is kind of a long story. We left our camera battery charger in Davis, California, so we are weak on shots after that point. The good news is that we were so enamored by Greg and Sonja's camera that we bought one. And it takes awesome pictures. So since we've been back here, we are back into taking good pictures.

We only took a few shots in Anchorage, but it was a lovely day. We dropped some Sarah Pale off at Steve's house, visited Natalie at the courthouse, and hung out with Team Wilyo. We enjoyed some tasty uppity Fire Island bread products before hitting the skies for Portland.

(We might have to get back to our Golden Donut roots for our bread-product fix next time.)

Portland was rainy of course. But a few hours out of town, we saw the largest shooting star of all time. Genevieve: Hey, check out that shooting star! Dawson: Where? Genevieve: Over there. Dawson: Where? Genevieve: Right there. Dawson: I see it. Genevieve: Wow, it is still going!

We now each have approximately 36 wishes that will come true. Don't worry, we'll be sure to share our lottery winnings with you. And please, enjoy the world peace!