On Easter, Thomas gets out of hand; the boys do a typical Anchorage Easter Egg hunt

Kalib and Jobe had stayed with us since Friday and none of us had any idea of the mischief their parents had been up to while they were with us. It all had to with Thomas the Train. They had found this battery powered, ridable Thomas the Train on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago, had kept quiet about it, but had been arguing inside their own heads the whole time.

Should they get it? Or was it over the top? Spoiling their boys just a little bit too much, maybe?

Well, they got it - and boy, was it fun! At least for Kalib and his cousin Ashley. Jobe was asleep in the car.

Oh yea, cousin Julian, too. That's him falling down.

As train wrecks go, it was grand and glorious.

Now, it is still Easter Sunday and this is the second post I have put up today - even though on Friday I said I would put up no more posts until Monday, and then I would take this blog right back into India.

What was I thinking? Yes, on Monday, I will still take this blog right back into India - but what made me think I could let Easter pass without making a good morning Happy Easter post and an end of the day, kids celebrate post?

Except for Melanie, who is doing a job up on the Arctic Slope, and Caleb, who opted to stay home, watch the Masters golf tournament and do laundry, everyone came and everyone contributed. Rex and Cortney bought themselves a smoker and smoked a ham with cherry tree chips - and I swear, it was the best ham I have ever tasted.

Oh, my goodness! Was it good!

I felt bad for the pig that contributed to our Easter feast with its life, but still it was good.

I wonder why God made the Earth this way?

And does the ressurrection apply to pigs?

How could it not?

Someday, I might meet this pig. It might say, "Bill, I am not very happy with you."

I might respond, "but you nourished me and all my family, pig, and you tasted good, and we thanked you and thanked the Good Lord for you."

"Well, okay," the pig might then say. "I'm resurrected, anyway, so what the hell. Everything is fine."

"Being ressurrected is good, but I sure miss the taste of ham!" I might then add.

"BILL!!!!" the resurrected pig might then squeal.

Of course, if it turns out that reincarnation is the real deal, then I might be the pig next time, and the ham might be the man. That would be karma. Sooner or later, though, we would get it right and we would both be happy.

I photographed everybody who came for dinner, from the babies Lynxton and his beautiful cousin Arial - the youngest in the family right now - on up to Margie. But I still have a lot to do and I can't let this post get too long, so I am restricting it to the Easter activities of the children, beginning with the arrival of the big Thomas the Train.

Maybe I will squeeze a couple of the others in this week, somewhere between India posts - at least Lynxton and Arial.

Then I move to the Easter egg hunt. After his Uncle Anthony (Ants) hid the eggs in the nearby park, Kalib slid down the snow bank on his butt and then led the way to the hunt. The first Thomas picture and all the egg hunt images were done with my iPhone, by the way - not because I was following Richard Murphy's example, but because the battery on my 7D went dead.

Cousin Julian heads out in search of eggs, just ahead of Kalib and Jobe. That's Charlie's lens. He photographed the action, too, and already has images up on Facebook - including one with me.

Ashley and Kalib search for eggs at the teeter totter - finally beginning to emerge after Anchorage's snowiest winter on record - 135 inches so far, undoubtedly with more to come.

Julian searches for eggs on the slide. I thought sure he would spot and grab this one, but he didn't. So I did. And I ate it, right there on the spot.

I JOKES! I JOKES! I JOKES!

What? You think I steal candy from babies?

Crimeny. Don't take everything I say so seriously!

Ashley finds an egg. I took it away from him and ate it right there, on the spot. It was really good, but it needed pepper. At first, it needed salt, too, but I turned Ashley upside down and sprinkled his tears on the egg and that was salt enough.

Jobe with his eggs.

It was the kind of day that turns snow into water. After hoarding a good supply of eggs, Jobe wandered into a puddle.

After awhile, he got out of the puddle. Then he dropped an egg into the puddle. "Ohhhh noooo!" he said.

Jobe does not yet have a big vocabulary, but he's got "ohhhhhh noooooo!" down pretty good.

As Ants looks on, Lavina and the boys frolic in the puddle.

As Jobe turns Terrible Two, his cousins (and several mostly unseen adults) gather to eat his cake and ice cream, and play in his Thomas the Train

Today was Jobe's birthday - two years old. "Terrible two." He's been practicising the Terrible Twos for awhile, his mom said.

Speaking of his mom, here she comes, carrying Lynxton into the room. Wait a minute! Something's off here. Lynxton does not swaddle in pink. Tiny as he is, last time I saw him, Lynxton was not this tiny.

Something is definitely off here.

Ha! It's not Lynxton at all! It's Ariel! Lynxton's newest cousin, born six days ago to Lavina's brother Anthony and his partner, Julie.

And look! There is another of Lynxton's cousins, Gracie, who hitchiked by herself all the way up from Shonto, Navajo Nation, just to help Jobe celebrate his second birthday. Readers who were with my old blog two years ago will recall that Gracie had hitchhiked up by herself then, too, to help Lavina care for baby Jobe and Kalib. Gracie got so attached, nothing could keep her away today.

Here's Lynxton - in his grandmother's arms.

Kalib wrestles with his cousin Gracie. To my surprise, I found Gracie's mom, Laverne, elsewhere in the house. She is going to help Gracie care for Lavina, Kalib, Jobe, Lynxton and Jacob while Margie goes off to Arizona.

This is one of the two cakes that Margie baked late last night. Then, we thought the party was going to be held at H2Oasis, Anchorage's big indoor water park. That's why I made the comment about Jobe getting wet. But Jobe was feeling not so well earlier today, so the party was moved to the house.

Margie outdid herself with this cake! Made it from scratch. It was the best cake I have eaten this year and maybe last year, too.

Jobe received a Percy the Train lamp from Margie and I. When one is two, even terrible two, there is magic in such a lamp.

Others want to hold Jobe's Percy lamp, but, being Terrible Two, he runs away with it, screaming.

His parents gave Jobe a fold-out Thomas the Train engine. For the moment, Jobe was not that interested - but his cousins and big brother were. That's Julian tumbling backwards out of Thomas.

Cousin Gracie, Kalib and Ariel's big brother, cousin Ashley in the Thomas the Train fold-out engine.

They went wild in there.

After Margie and I entered Wasilla on the way home, we found ourselves overtaking a train. I hoped we would reach the engine before we had to turn right at Lucille Street, but we didn't. Still, I'm pretty sure that it was Thomas pulling these guys.

Smiling, rough, tough, super-strong Thomas the Train rolling through Wasilla, Alaska on the day that Jobe turned Terrible Two.

Tomorrow, I return this blog to October, 1988 and the Great Gray Whale Rescue.