Easter Weekend

This Easter weekend was a pretty good one. It kicked off on Friday when I met up with one of my good friends and we went and saw the movie "The Croods." Besides the parents that were there with their kids, we were probably the oldest people in the theater. That aside, the company was good, and the movie was too. After the movie, we walked around and looked for a restaurant to eat dinner at. There were several local places we wanted to try, but being a Friday night, they had ridiculous waits, so we settled on The Cheesecake Factory instead. It was delicious! 

Saturday, I took my niece into DC to go to the National Cherry Blossom Festival. When we first got there, we went to the Museum of American History for lunch, and then we walked around the museum for a little while so my niece could see some of her favorite exhibits. No matter how many times we go to the museums, it's still fun to see everything there. 

After lunch, we walked across the street to the open fields on the mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument for the kite festival they were having in conjunction with the cherry blossom festival.  The fields were crowded with people and their kites, but it was a gorgeous day with beautiful weather, so it was worth fighting the crowds to be there. Here is Emma with her kite before flying it. She was beyond excited.

All ready to go. 

Trying to get it up

Attempting to get a picture of the two of us:

(can you see the scaffolding on the Washington Monument? They are finally starting to repair it after it was damaged in the earthquake in 2011)

I LOVE this picture below! All the kites in the sky with the Capitol in the background.

One of Emma's favorite things to do at the mall is to ride the carousel, so we took a break from our kite-flying and took a spin on her beloved ride. She was grinning from ear to ear the entire time.

After the carousel, we went to the Smithsonian castle and walked around a little bit. Like many of the buildings in DC, this one has beautiful architecture. 

At this point in the day, my sister and her husband met us at the mall to go see the cherry blossoms. Unfortunately with the colder than usual temperatures we'd been having here in March, they weren't out as had originally been predicted. This was on Saturday, and today(Monday) on my way home from work, I noticed a few cherry trees blossoming near the airport I go by while riding the metro. This means another trip to the city is in order...

On Easter Sunday, we put on our best spring outfits(even though it was raining) and went to church. I always love church on Easter Sunday. Before church, I watched the video "He is Risen" that was posted on lds.org. It brought tears to my eyes as I thought about all that Jesus Christ did for me(and all of us) to make it possible to gain a resurrected body and be able to live again with Him forever. More tears came to my eyes as the spirit testified to me that my elder brother Jesus Christ loves me and that through His sacrificing atonement, I can be forgiven of my sins. He died on that cross, but it was for us. This I know to be true.

After church, we went to my sisters in-laws where my niece went on an Easter egg hunt and then we ate the traditional ham and potatoes for dinner. It was a wonderful Easter day(and weekend). I hope yours was too!