A Tulip Weekend

This past weekend we loaded up and drove away to hang out with Kyle and Heidi. We had such a good time. We're so glad they took us in, we needed an outing and it was a perfect change of pace. This post is definitely loaded with photos but I've learned it's easier to load up on the photos now for the book I'll make later. So scroll fast, this is a long post.

This was the first long car ride with Reed forward facing in his car seat so he was able to chill out watching movies like a big kid. Let's just say, he's a super fan of the movies in the car. As long as one was playing, he was happy. I kept everyone supplied with snacks and drinks and we all survived the 3 hour drive. Even I survived in the Seattle traffic, I think I only grabbed the door and gasped twice. Could be a record!

We BBQ'd Friday night when we got there and the kids were out the door to play before we even finished eating. Kyle and Heidi have a great park right outside their front door, in the middle of their development and the kids never wanted to come inside. The boys said they loved playing out there more than anything else we did. Go figure.

I've always wanted to go to the Tulip Festival up in Skagit Valley but just haven't ever followed through with planning a trip up there. We had a plan for Saturday, yeah.

After getting through some annoying traffic, we ended up in some of the most quaint farmland I've ever seen. It's so green up there from all the rain and it's beautiful land. We were passing some amazing old barns, run down fences and houses from the turn of the century that had so much character. I loved every one and it's a good thing we had to keep going with the traffic or I would have had Milo stop at every one so I could take photos (all of these are out the window).

Ignore all the telephone wires, I loved this old church.

The gardens at Tulip Town were gorgeous! We hit it at the perfect time, almost all the flower beds were in full bloom. And now that I think about it, not many dying either. Of course we hit it with about a million other people but it was still great.

These are 'Claudia' tulips. So pretty, I've never seen ones like this before. Actually, I had never seen many of the unique varieties that were blooming. Some that looked like a rose, some crazy yellow ones that looked like they were stuffed with fluff, multicolored ones, even a black tulip. Can you tell I like tulips?

The kids couldn't believe all the flowers and were running from color to color. I only panicked a couple times when it looked like they were going to rip the blossoms right off when they were smelling them, ha.

We could have staged so many photo ops with these guys but with their ages, their favorite thing to do was......

run around in the grass, far from the flowers and teach Kate how to play 'Duck, Duck, Goose'. Maybe when they're older.

We saw hundreds of thousands of tulips in bloom and a few fields of daffodils. One garden said they plant over 300,00 bulbs and that isn't counting all the random fields we saw driving to the garden we toured. It was honestly so amazing. How cool to be a tulip farmer.

Kate was adorable. She kept saying, 'Take my picture with the purple (insert every other color as well) ones'. The only problem was getting her to stay still long enough to look at the camera before she hopped onto the next row. Still adorable though, I love these purple blooms.

This is Nathan's favorite photo. He wants me to show it to everyone, he's so proud of his discovery. He noticed this 'zebra' tulip in the wrong row. It was the only one like it in the row and to him, it just stood out. Pretty cool.
Honestly look at all these red tulips!! I was in amazement and wanted to take at least a couple more hundred photos. Too bad we were all starving and done chasing kids amongst so many tourists or I would have.

Heidi staged this one with us off centered and the barn in the back. I can't believe she was able to take it without people close up in the background with all the senior photos/my space/facebook/blogging photos being taken. Now if only she could have figured out a way to not include our double chins, ha!

This photos a little better (or am I kidding myself the double chins look less... don't answer) and look at Reed's adorable smile. I know the grandmas will like it so ignore that I posted almost 2 identical photos, k?

Milo bought a bunch of tulips for Kathryn and I and it's been great to have something cheery to look at today, our weather has been dreary, dreary. I loved these red ones, their color is so vibrant. $5 a bunch isn't bad and they are still going strong. The paper said to use ice water so they lasted longer. It's true, they still look amazing. Thanks Milo!

This post has literally taken me all day to finish. Don't let it fool you when it says it's posted at 9 am. Now it's 11:30 and I can finally click 'Publish'. I've had a sick baby at my feet for 2 days, kindergarten registration for Dane, Nathan lost his first tooth and more loads of laundry than I can count. All since Sunday night. Feast of famine with blogging material, that's for sure!