Each year the Saturday before Easter, My Aunt Joy & Uncle Frank have hosted an Easter Egg hunt for as long as I can remember. I remember long ago as a child going to their Brad's Cafe uptown, where the train would run by it...and they would throw chalk to all us kids-then to the Cafe in Salt Lake, where I worked a day or two. We had so many family activities at that place and it was a favorite place to eat! ...Anyways...this has been a family tradition for so many years. After they retired from the Cafe, they began doing it at their home in their & their neighbors back yard. She always cooks a wonderful ham or two or three, and it's pot luck to go with it! It's fun to take my kids & grandkids to something that I have enjoyed all my life! She colors 30 or so dozen real eggs and writes a prize or a small money token amount on some. I'll forever remember Cecil and Henry handing out the coins...prizes really didn't come into play until my kids were little. The crowd has changed...all of us cousins now grown with our own grandkids...and yes, we're the old folks now. The old generation is no longer with us. Aunt Joy is the only one on that side I believe. All my favorite childhood memories consist of being with that family in one activity or another..camping being my all time favorite! There wasn't a holiday that went by that we didn't gather in one way or another...winter time it seemed to be at Aunt Joy's house, summer time, it was a picnic in Logan to celebrate Memorial Day, camping over the 4th of July in Ogden Canyon and the best was every August going to the Grey River in Wyoming. And many more in between! Oh how I miss those days! So carefree and so much love and fun that surrounded us! I feel so blessed to be a part of those days and so grateful that my parents provided me the opportunity to be a part of that. So grateful that Uncle Frank's side of the family accepted my family in as part of their own! Each party or activity took a lot of work. So much unnoticed and taken for granted in my youth! I was surprised at the emotions this years simple Easter celebration brought on ...looking around and seeing how many of those great people are missing from the picture now, really made me miss my Dad again and the other's too! Surprising how those emotions come out of nowhere! I had such a wonderful childhood! Protected and loved by so many. Given opportunities that don't just come to everyone! The simple acts of family love that were taught to me not only by my family, but extended family that would do anything for you! Thank you Aunt Joy! And to Uncle Frank as well! I miss you too! This Easter season, I'm especially thankful that I will see you all again, that this is not it!