[photo heavy]

it was one of those times when everything was perfect. the weather was perfect. the company was perfect. the timing was perfect. everything was perfect.

easter is that time of year that brings me back to childhood. new dresses with matching hats and sometimes even gloves. white, shiny, pleather shoes. my mom ready with her camera to photograph three of the cutest girls ever. my older sister had grown out of the new dress phase. baskets of candy. hearing "he is risen" over and over all day. he is risen indeed.

well, this easter was one of the most perfect easter's ever. no new dresses. no pleather shoes. no picture-crazy mother anywhere in sight...wait, i was the picture-crazy mother. weird. but there was a sister, an aunt, that made her way to the dominican republic to see us. that beats easter hats any day.

it was seriously a magical visit.

ashley and tommy's first stop was to feed kids in a place called "the hole." literally, a hole in the center of santiago. it is an inactive trash dump where more than 600 families have made their homes. poverty. abuse. addiction. prostitution. doesn't sound like easter festivities, does it? or maybe it does...i seem to remember a certain man who surrounded himself with people like that some 2,000 years ago. the hole is very easter.

then, for the second time in four years, ashley celebrated her birthday with us on our incredible island. the last time was in 2007, minus a couple kids. well, a little boy was cookin' anyway. so we made a grand night of it. grand meaning: relaxing with drinks in hand, watching final four and eating nachos grande...taco bell doesn't even get close to how good they were.

for some reason people seem to glow in the dominican.

we even had an impromptu "happy birthday chorus" with mom, dad and abbers via skype. what would we do without skype.

and just like those mornings of being a kid with the anticipation of putting on the easter dress that has been hanging in my closet for weeks just WAITING to be put on...easter morning came.

we spent the morning at our house with the jimenez family. the kids played in the pool. mike, ash and tom lounged drinking coffee and eating mangos from our tree. and yajaira and i made a dominican lunch. it was a delicious morning.

and easter morning turned into easter afternoon and that means an easter egg hunt in the back yard. landon makes it look easy. he had a blast with little or no help from any of the adults who were beaming just as much as landon. there's just something about watching a kid find that little egg that makes us happy. especially since he discovered the new found gift of pesos. 7 to be exact.

after the easter egg hunt we relaxed for a bit and i had the chance opportunity to catch mike in his favorite place, the hammock. at different times throughout the early afternoon, i caught him with both the kids, swinging away. totally easter.

and then the festivities began. the easter egg coloring. it was glorious.

landon concentrated so hard. he was so excited. but would barely show it because he wanted those eggs to be brilliant. he watched as aunt ashley mixed colors and he totally loved purple. he used the white crayon and etched his careful designs and mostly used his fingers to dip them in colors. landon was so proud of his eggs. and his mama was so proud of him.

we tried to "marbleize" our eggs too, but someone put a little too much oil in. still kinda worked.

aunt ashy and bubba were bff's all week.

and we miss aunt ashy and uncle "bommy" (not to be confused with Obama).

and it wouldn't be a goodwin easter egg coloring without the cross-egg.

and look who loves me....

...and look who loves tom.

and did i mention that i LOVE this man. and i think this may be my favorite picture of him, ever.

and i LOVE this boy.

and it was such a lovely day, even the puppies felt the same way we did by late afternoon as most of us snuggled in for an easter nap.

and that my friends, is what i call "photo heavy." but totally worth it.