Extreme Easter

I love my family. While we hold an uncanny resemblance to "The Griswolds" from the National Lampoon's Vacation series, there is never a Clark family gathering that ends without some sort of excitement. We may not have the best manners, funniest jokes, or your typical traditions, but we do have fun, and lots of it. Yesterday's Easter celebration was no exception.

Our lunch/dinner menu was one of the strangest I've ever seen. Chicken Fettuccine, Ham, Chicken Wings, jello salad, asparagus, BBQ Beans, cheese and broccoli rice, deviled eggs, jalapeño poppers (or something of the sort), finished with peach cobbler, rice krispy treats, and ice cream. It was like fancy Italian meal meets Summer BBQ meets Kids birthday meets Christmas. Strange spread..but mmm good.

My dad, of course, will never grow up and had to organize an Easter Egg Hunt that everyone could participate in. He had rules, maps, and weather gear lined up for everyone. The rules could not be broken, or else you were disqualified from the competition. No joke. The first round of the hunt featured "all those eligible for Medicare." I don't think they found the "humor" in that statement as we did. But, they managed to round up all 25 eggs holding spectacular prizes: candy and money.

Round two was organized for the "youngsters" ranging from my uncle who is 50 to me and Grant...so a good 27 year difference between the competitors. We also had 25 eggs to find, but our territory was much larger than the Medicare hunters. I swear on my life that my dad took it upon himself to use the Chuckit! toy and launch two dozen plastic Easter eggs into the forest. He even admitted to almost tossing one into the pond to see how we would get it. The competitive edge came out in all of us as we fearlessly scoured the mountain, checking under pine needles, looking under falling trees, and wandering into questionable terrain. Knowing my dad as well as we do, there were no limitations to where the eggs could have been hidden. About an hour later, I had a grand total of four eggs. Jersey helped me find one and Grant and I almost went swimming in the pond as we both eyed an egg at the edge of the water. Because of the torrential downpour that was not letting up,we gathered inside to track our progress. Our tally counted 22 eggs that had been collected, leaving three still missing somewhere in the wild. And since my dad couldn't even point us in the direction of those last three, we called it quits. I went home with $3, two tootsie rolls and a miniature Mr. Goodbar. Grant was totally shocked by this strange family event, but he went home with $4, enough for a couple Slurpees, so he was happy.

Thanks, family...for another tale worth telling.