Easter Weekend

Photos – One of the photos I captured of my great-nephew on Saturday during a photo shoot.

By Allan Olson

Easter weekend was an amazingly fun one, filled with family and good times – just the way life should be.

It was the first time we have headed north for a weekend since Christmas – already a long three months ago – and it was also the first time we have seen my parents since they got back from their annual sojourn south. They were in our town once since they’ve been back, but it just so happened that we were all out of town for state basketball at the time.

We headed north on Friday evening, as soon as my wife was able to escape her office. The kids and I had the Yukon packed with everything we needed for the weekend –or so we thought.

The kids are all old enough now to remember to pack their own stuff. We just tell them how long we expect to be gone, and how many items they need – and occasionally set a max allowed – and it’s their responsibility to get it out to the vehicle. Normally this works pretty well, and this time it worked well for all but one.

We arrived at my parents at about 7 p.m., just in time to relax for the evening and visit. The kids and I started unpacking and hauling things in. One would think that it shouldn’t take that long, but when we head north, we tend to pack a little extra, and this weekend I even had my portable studio kit packed to take some photos of my great-nephew.

So with the vehicle unpacked, Abigail began searching the stuff in the house, looking for her bag. She went back out to the vehicle again to check and see if it was still in there, and soon determined that even though I told her several times in the hour prior to our departure to put her stuff in the car, she had only managed to grab her hat, shoes and blanket. Thankfully her mom had to do some alterations on her dress at work, so at least we had that. But she had no pajamas or other clothes that were sure to be needed for the weekend. She borrowed something from an older cousin; another cousin enroute stopped at a store in International Falls and picked something up for her, and her mom went to town to find something a little more comfortable for sleep wear.

As my grandfather was known to say with a twinkle in his eye when I was a kid, “Kids, confounded kids, anyway.”  

On Saturday morning, I brought my wife to town to meet her mom so the two of them could visit another family member and work on some family reunion ancestry details for this summer. About halfway to town I realized I had forgotten my phone, so I had a quiet hour break during which I made a few stops in town for some supplies and tried out the new coffee shop the little town is trying to support. I made it back to my parents with some donuts for everyone and then sat down to read and visit. My niece called me a while later and let me know she was on her way with her son for some photos, which prompted me to finish setting up a temporary studio in my parent’s basement.

After the brief obligatory baby holding by those that were interested, we headed down to the studio. Unfortunately for me, business is not brisk and paying clients are even more rare than non-paying clients (typically family). So I don’t have the greatest in equipment or fancy props and I’m not a photoshop expert so I don’t have a green screen to magically drop whatever background people want in the photo. However, this was one of those occasions when everything worked perfectly, both the subject and the camera, and I captured some amazing (sat least in my opinion) images of this cute great-nephew of mine.

We finished the photo shoot, they left, and then I had to leave as well. It seems the eggs needed for pancakes had all been boiled for deviled eggs on Sunday – so my niece and I headed to town. We made the trip quick, and then together we got the batter ready and she cooked them while my dad fried up the venison breakfast sausage and I made the syrup. It was a great Saturday afternoon meal.

With the food out of the way, the kids and I headed to town again, this time to meet my wife at her mom’s, and then we headed to visit her Grandpa. This amazing man is knocking really hard on the century mark, and is truly just a wonderful being. We had a visit with him, Abigail got some selfies with him; Marcus did too, and of course my wife. I took photos of all of them, and even got my own photo with him. The smiles we got from our visit was all we needed to know that he appreciated the time we spent with him. For us, it was truly a treasured visit, and we look forward to the next.

That evening at my parents, the kids played, the adults visited and my dad found great enjoyment in stealing Abigail’s hat that we bought her in Texas – replete with sparkles – and adding it to his collection of other places. Even though he’s been to Texas a few times, for some reason, he hasn’t bought a Texas hat yet. There was great enjoyment all around – because sometimes it was quite a while before she noticed it was missing, and other times it was rather quick.

On Sunday we attended my wife’s childhood church for the baptism of our great-nephew. I took some photos, we visited some, and then headed back to my parents for lunch. 

After lunch my mom pranked the grandkids and sent them all out looking for that one plastic egg that they all had outside – after about 10 minutes, she confessed that she was just fooling them – April Fools! They all took it well and grandma had the last laugh.

I hid the Easter baskets by myself this year, and after two years of Abigail being the first one to find hers, I ensured she would be the last, and she was happy about that because before it was too easy.

We finally made it home about 7 p.m. to spend a mostly quiet evening.

This weekend is really weather dependent, so it’s currently unknown if we’ll be doing much of anything. I sure would like to make a geocaching outing, but I really don’t want to dig through the snow either, so perhaps we’ll just stay home and rest for a change.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that will be carrying our most precious cargo. Also, snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.