Easter Break 2013

Coloring eggs with James
Anna enjoyed Easter Break with just over a week off school (March 29 - April 5).  She enjoyed a couple of trips during her vacation.

The first trip was an Easter Sunday visit to New York to join Aunt Mary, Uncle Joe, Cousin James, and Aunt Loren for Easter dinner.  Prior to hitting the road, Anna awoke early to find that the Easter bunny paid a visit and hid eggs around the house.  Following the early morning egg hunt, Mom managed to find a 7 AM Easter mass in Vienna before hitting the road.  This may have been the quickest Easter mass ever thanks to no music whatsoever (definitely a minimalist service).  The whole thing was over in less than 45 minutes.

Anna arrived at Aunt Mary's house to find that the Easter bunny also left her basket there (definitely a much nicer basket).  Aunt Mary made Easter bread, including a special bread basket with an Easter egg for Anna.  Anna had time to color eggs with cousin James, visit the beach with James and Aunt Loren, try out her new joke book on Uncle Joe, play catch with Bonnie, and enjoy a delicious Easter dinner prepared by Aunt Mary.  On Monday, Anna hit the road back to Virginia for the second part of the break - a trip to Mexico.
Easter Bread Basket by Aunt Mary

On Tuesday morning, Anna boarded a plan with her parents for lovely Cancun, where they arrived to 85 degree weather and some welcome sunshine.  Anna is always excited to visit Mexico, which she believes is a country of vacation resorts (someday she will learn otherwise).  In the meantime, she had a great time swimming in the pool practically non-stop, digging in the sand, and finally jumping waves in the ocean, which was quite calm the last day of the visit.

Anna's parents were hopeful that after two years of Spanish class in school that she could practice what she has learned.  Unfortunately, it seems that her skills are limited to days of the week, months of the year, and counting to one hundred.  Clearly, they are not learning conversational Spanish (really - shouldn't she be learning key phrases like how to order food or ask where the bathroom is????).  By the end of the trip, she could at least ask for a glass of milk in Spanish.

On the beach in Mexico
One of the many treats on the vacation is the food - particularly the fresh fruit and seafood.  Anna, who normally eats a very light breakfast during the week, loves to eat out for breakfast.  The kid can really pack it away at a breakfast buffet.  A typical breakfast for Anna on the trip:  yogurt with granola, 1/4 a waffle, a piece of fresh bread, scrambled eggs with cheese, fruit, a glass of milk, and a glass of juice (and yes she ate it all).  Apparently all of the swimming she did necessitated a big breakfast. 

The daily highlight for this trip was the 4 PM zumba class on the beach.  This was led by what Joe described as the Mexican Richard Simmons and was quite popular (there were 40-50 bikini-clad women at the daily class).  Theresa thought this was a brilliant career choice for the instructor and plans to mention it to her brother as a good way to meet women.  Anna enjoyed doing the zumba moves on the side.

Anna returned home Saturday to more spring-like weather in Virginia.  Sunday morning we headed to DC to see the cherry blossoms only to discover that they had not bloomed yet due to on-going cold temperatures.  With 80 degrees predicted for this week, that should change soon.



Hanging in the pool with Dad

Sand Hole

Zumba on the beach

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