Raising Schuurmans: A Spring Break Overnight Trip & Easter

     Last week, schools around here were out for Spring Break and when they're out, there are no children's activities at our church. We have commitments on both Tuesday and Wednesday nights and with both those nights free, we decided to take an overnight trip to Raleigh and Chapel Hill to visit some folks. Wednesday is Mark's day off and Tuesday is a short day for him, so he got up super early, and was home by 10:30am. We left around 11am and drove straight to Raleigh, our state capital. Two boys from the Rennard family are attending NC State University so we met up with them for an ice cream treat and a tour of part of the campus. Let's get real - we just checked out the baseball facilities. Will and Nathan are the two oldest of six children, all of whom I babysat when I was in college. Both boys helped Mark on the bread route during their summers as well. Now THEY are in college and I feel old. Ha!
     After our time with them, we had supper in downtown Raleigh then went to my cousin's home just on the outskirts of Chapel Hill. My cousin Kris has lived the past twenty years in Belgium but she, her husband, and three boys moved here last summer. Marcus took a particular liking to her youngest, Indi, and they had fun together while the adults were able to catch up. We spent the night with them, got up and had breakfast the next morning, then went to UNC Chapel Hill.
     There, we met up with Duncan, the oldest of the five Dorris children that I used to babysit as well. Duncan also helped Mark on the bread route at different times and pulled up for him when he was in town. (*Note* "Pull-up" is just a term in the bread world that means you put any backstock on the shelf and if there is none, you just pull the bread up to the front, make it all flush, and looking nice.) Duncan is a senior, planning to graduate on Mother's Day, and we've been telling him for years we'd come visit. Well, we might've pushed it to the last minute, but we finally did as promised.
     Even though it was a whirlwind couple of days, we enjoyed beautiful weather both days, we walked a LOT on both campuses, and it was really great to see all who we visited.
     For Easter, we stayed in town. We went to Sunrise Service at our church and it was a frigid 33 degrees Fahrenheit. The boys were dressed and wrapped in blankets but it was still pretty chilly. We ate breakfast there, went to Sunday School, regular preaching, then stayed home, resting the remainder of the day. Below are some pictures leading up to Easter and how we taught/celebrated it with the boys.

Sweet morning snuggles on the couch

This picture makes me giggle because Marcus chose to sit in the high chair (usually for a baby) and Titus wanted to sit in Marcus' old car seat. Either way, they sweetly read books for probably 10 minutes.

Causing trouble and having fun at the grocery store.

Many of you ask about our nephews, Hunter and Tyson. They are doing wonderfully and are as cute as ever.

Here we are with Nathan (red shirt) and Will (white shirt) at NC State. Their mascot is the Wolfpack so Marcus wanted to sit on the wolf.

Checking out the baseball field at NC State.

Since Titus fell off the bed during the night, Mark went to sleep with the boys and gave me a whole bed to myself (and my growing belly). Here shows a picture of how much Titus moves around at night and how hard of a sleeper Marcus is.