How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation, I turned to heaven
And spoke Your name into the night
Then through the darkness, Your loving-kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is finished, the end is written
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Who could imagine so great a mercy?
What heart could fathom such boundless grace?
The God of ages stepped down from glory
To wear my sin and bear my shame
The cross has spoken, I am forgiven
The King of kings calls me His own
Beautiful Savior, I’m Yours forever
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Jesus, Yours is the victory, whoa!

Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Blessed and humbled by Easter service this year at the church God has lead us to in the last few months… The authenticity, rawness and Christ-centeredness shines through and we’re excited how the Lord will move and use us in this family, city and beyond.

Our church didn’t have an egg hunt but we found a tame one @ another local church. No tramplings here.

Exploring some more trails near us.

The sound of flowing water is quite invigorating.

Our lakes — Mommy’s been running this route quite a bit but E had actually not played in their multiple playgrounds yet.

Socializing as always. :)

We are enamored w/ all the unique coffee/tea shops. We met Uncle Alden, who Daddy has not seen in decades, at this cafe. He was in town for a rowing competition.

Neighborhood party for the grand opening of the clubhouse. Great sense of community and nice folks we’re getting to know living ’round us. :)

OMG, grilled cheese stuffed w/ mac n’ cheese?

The space turned out quite nice with the pool/spa, grills/bbq pits, small gym and meeting room inside.

It’s all whizzing by us in what seems like a flash… Hanging on to each twinkling for an instant longer.

Back at his happy place on an early release day from school.

Showers found us indoors, building and making for quite some time.

A tempting buy since it’s a rarity finding his name on a mass produced item.

Legoland’s 20th birthday {cake}.

A natural foods eatery not far from the park — he devoured those tacos!

And a newly opened culture cafe with lotsa interesting fermented/probiotic goodies — coconut froyo, kombucha, fresh sourdough and more. LOVE all the independent and creative food places here.

Science Night @ school.

The PTA and volunteers did such a great job with all the stations.

Open House SD celebrates architecture and urban design by opening nearly 100 sites on a single day for people to visit. We only got to see 2 this year on a Sunday afternoon but hope we’ll get to visit more in following years. This was at a residence in Point Loma with beautiful mid century design and lovely views. (No actual house pix — can’t remember if not allowed or we just felt awkward w/ the owners around).

Then we went to the SD Chinese Historical Museum. Gotta get edumucated on how our peoples got to this city, right? :)

It was small but peaceful with some good reading commentary.

A book and a bowl after school one day. Our favorite acai place opened a new location and of course we had to check it out!

SDSU, one of the local colleges, hosted a Science and Engineering Sampler for all ages so we went to check it out.

Got to chat with enthusiastic students and faculty.

We also walked through some of the halls, classrooms and labs. University seems like several lifetimes ago for us but sooner than we think, our little boy will be on one of these campuses. *sob*

BUT not yet… not just yet. :)

We had some Southwest vouchers to use up before they expired so for spring break, we decided to fly to our new state capitol and then drive to Tahoe/Squaw and see how the snow was up there. :) First time flying out of (and back into!) SD.

Straight to Tahoe. Everything was so GREEN!

Geared up and rarin’ to go.

The first day, a huge snowstorm hit. E still had his lesson but only a couple of lifts were open. Then they closed the whole mountain early due to lightning. :(

A little bummed but we got to walk around the village a bit and found a cool coffee shop.

Jumping in the snow. :)

Obligatory oversized-wooden-chair-at-ski-resort pic. Not many people were out so we didn’t have to wait. :)

Played Jenga and ping pong back at the lodge.

It snowed even more overnight so the next day was a glorious blanket of white!

E had lessons again so it was a mad dash to ride as much as the mountain as we could to make up for lost time. :P

See Lake Tahoe in the background?

Nature has a way of just leaving us speechless at times.

Then we boarded awhile w/ E towards the end of the day.

It started coming down pretty hard as we were walking back so these two decided to make a HUGE snowball and snowman.

We considered extending our time in Squaw another day but unfortunately couldn’t cancel our Sacramento hotel so it was bye-bye for now. Another round of drinks for the road. :)

The next day, it was time to explore the California State Capitol.

Inside was what was considered their museum. They had informative displays for each county in the whole state. Ours!

Met @ the Reagan statue for our tour guide. “Free” tour (paid for by our taxes, they joked).

The green Assembly Chamber.

And the rose Senate Chamber.

The guide was pretty entertaining with lots of interesting tidbits.

This bear was apparently purchased by Arnold Schwarzenegger as a gift to CA.

We strolled the park and gardens outside.

From the World Peace Rose Garden.

Vietnam Memorial.

E had lots of questions about war, why people fight and soldiers dying. Difficult but good conversations.

Memorial Grove, a tribute to the those who lost their lives in the Civil War.

Found a Taiwanese place for lunch.

“Bing”, of course!

We then wandered over to the Old Sacramento State Historic Park.

This riverboat on the waterfront is actually a hotel.

We still had quite a bit of daylight left so found a nearby park to run around. He requested hide and seek.

This monkey loves hanging and dangling.

They call this sculpture the alien tourist trailer. :D

Mommy got up early AM to run on the American River Trail.

It was enjoyable until…

The wild turkey that almost gave her a heart attack. :D Then a homeless old man comes cruising on a bike, right past the turkey without a blink of an eye. Said turkey wanders back into the wild, whew!

Beautiful Saturday morning to check out one of the area’s farmer’s markets. Not as big as some of the ones in SD but lots of fresh goodies. We saw these lion’s mane mushrooms we wish we could’ve brought back.

Our return flight was that evening so we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Powerhouse Science Center.

Fun challenges like build a structure to withstand a simulated earthquake…

Or tornado.

These digital sand maps are making an appearance at many a museum.

The museum seemed kind of small when we walked in but there was actually lots to keep us busy for a few hours. We also saw a short planetarium show.

Airport for our first flight “back home” to SD. We used to be super sad to go home after trips. Now, not so much. :)