There was no tiptoe-ing..................

We picked a mild April day to head out to Thanksgiving Point and enjoy the annual tulip festival. Oh it was sooooo refreshing and wonderful. Denny said, "We all need to spend more time outside." And I agree. Especially if "outside" looks like this! Thanksgiving Point is just a hop, skip and jump away when you depart from Denny's house! Denny was so kind/brave/normal to drive us on the freeway. And boy howdy, the freeway entrance onto I-15 Southbound from Denny's house is akin to some of my crazy nightmares: full of oncoming Millenium Falcons full of dirt, double wide semis bearing down going 80 mph, cement barriers thrown up on either side (probably also camouflaging Taliban gunmen), utter mayhem. Or, in other words, merging onto I-15 in Utah during construction. I busted out with an "OH MY HECK!" (or a version of that) as we merged, and then I felt better.

The entrance is so pretty, and it's always so fun to "begin" an adventure - like Disneyland where everyone is taking 30 photos just inside the entrance because we don't know what else to do! But they do have gorgeous groupings of tulips all along the pathway into the building. Hey, I just noticed I got a shot of Denny catching up with us (she dropped us old people off and parked the car in the parking lot).

Luscious lemony yellows.

I like our three purses all lined up in a row! As always, we needed to rely on "the kindness of strangers" in order to get a group shot. I asked a nice, older gentleman to be our kind stranger, and he was happy to oblige. Then another kind stranger came up and offered to get a group shot with the five of us! We were trying to explain to her that the photographer was a stranger, but this lady wasn't listening and kept trying to force him to join us. Finally we got through to her and she let him off the hook. We probably should have taken her up on it!

I had mom and dad stand apart from each other so you could also see the pretty field of flowers behind darling them.

The reason there was no tip-toeing through the tulips, was because we rented a GOLF CART! It was just perfect, and lots of fun to drive too! We all took turns riding up front, and riding in back. Riding in back is  like riding in the back seat of the family car as a grown-up. The view is so different and not nearly as fun, and you think, wow, I ought to dig some of the french fries out from between these seats!

This is such a spectacular creation. See grandpa Hiatt's blog "The Oregonians" for much more professional looking photos of all of this!

Our golf cart was the ideal way to cover so much ground. Although it was kinda loud. I felt like it was the golf cart version of a Wal-mart squeeky-wheeled shopping cart. It is a "share the road" experience too - lots of driving for 15 inches, pulling over to the side so a mom and her three little kids and a stroller could go past, driving for 15 feet and stopping because there is someone lost in quiet reverie looking at the splendor (which is the POINT) and not at all concerned about the fact that there's a golf cart bearing down on them going 3 miles an hour!

This is mom in front of "The Secret Garden." It's fun to take her photo at this place because we have one from 10 years ago when we visited Thanksgiving Point, AND she loves the children's book. I remember she bought a beautiful hardback version of it for our children when they were little.

We had books about Bible stories growing up, and I was enthralled with the painting of the Garden of Eden. Oh the purple flowers hanging along the edges of that painting. I would gaze at it for long periods of time and just "fall" into it! These photos remind me of that overall "feel" of the Garden of Eden.

A photo from the "other" side of the river. I don't know why I thought I needed to run cleeaaaar around to get this shot, but here it is!

I think they're the best looking perennials in this garden!

Dad made us laugh when he mentioned it was ironic to walk through acres and acres of fresh flowers, only to have lunch in the restaurant on the grounds, and they had FAKE FLOWERS for their centerpieces!

It was a lovely day!

And just a few more photos - Snow on the tulips.

Put away the Easter decorations and couldn't bear to part with the little chicks and their houses so I've got them lined up in a row in the bedroom and I might leave them there until.........................

We have a magpie nest in our fir tree in the back yard. They are squawky birds, and so are robins, and we have so darn many birds cawing away at 5:30 a.m. now that I've taken to sleeping in heavenly peace in the basement for awhile! And NOW we're packing our suitcases and heading to Colorado and fun and games with Amy and Dave and Jack and Macy and Carly (Happy Birthday Amy on April 24th, the day we're all together before Amy and Dave fly off to the Caribbean and Dennis and I engage in much wild rumpusness with the kids. and probably exhaustion at the end of the day. Can't wait!
XOOX
Mom

A Peep at my Peeps

Why, hearty post-Easter greetings to my far-flung family! This little bunny is so pinkaliscious! I want my own matching pinkaliscious Easter bonnet. Bucket List: Take the whole family to the Oregon Coast; take the whole family on a Disney Cruise; go to Jerusalem; learn how to paint watercolors more better; make a recording of "Army of Helaman/Sisters in Zion" featuring all 16 of our grandchildren who I think could hit the road they sing so well; Visit the Taj Mahal; wear a big pink-swathed flouncy straw hat to church on Easter Sunday; do a 5-k walk-athon while other, younger family members run a race. Okay, enough of that.

Anyway, don't you just love Easter clothes. The hats and gloves and bonnets that little girls always wore to church. Little boys in pastel shirts. Me making 7-month-old Ethan a little plaid Easter romper outfit for his first Easter. Angie brought him to Valley Mental Health so I could measure him and hem it, and in the process of doing so I stuck his perfect alabaster baby thigh with a pin and he bled all over the place. It was Easter grandmamania in all it's first grandchild glory!

I call this "snow shovel in the background of snazzy Easter egg tree." The bucket behind the tree is what I was sitting on while I pulled weeds and concocted my bucket list. I'd rake up the pine needles and leaves, scoop the rakings into snow shovel, and dump it all in the garbage can. I have taken to sitting on the pail when I weed. bad knees. At 62 I find myself sitting on the ground without thinking of the dire consequences, and then when it's time to start gruntingly getting up, my gosh, it's almost comical!!

These eggs are covered with mirror disco ball stuff and when the sun shone on them they could blind someone. I almost changed my mind and took them down last Friday because I was worried about zinging the our neighbors the Zimmermans! Hopefully they enjoyed the show. 

We got to have the Springville Sweats, aka Tony, Cindy, Lauren, Reagan, Jane, Eli, Vivian and Calvin, plus Ethan William himself came up with them from BYU and Denny and Emma and Great-grandma and Great-Grandpa Hiatt joined us for the Easter egg hunt. We got to have Ethan and Tony and Cindy and kids with us for much of conference weekend. It just meant so much to me, to have everyone here, to watch the afternoon session on Saturday together. I loved it. I loved listening to the music together and sustaining the leadership of the church together, and listening to some wonderful talks too. The Sunday morning session was one of the best I've heard, well, since the last time I said something was the best I'd heard (and that happens a lot). Dennis drove Ethan back to BYU between Sunday morning and afternoon sessions and when he got home we settled in to the afternoon session, but soon as that guy started his talk in Spanish, I was out like a light and slept the rest of the afternoon. I'll have to read that in the Ensign!

Official 2015 Easter Egg Hunt Portrait:
Ethan William 18, Emma Claire 9, Eli Andrew 10, Calvin J 4, Jane Marie 12, Lauren Anthony 16, Reagan Elizabeth 14, Vivian Nay Nay 6, and Aunt Denies fifty-something-er-other!

Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa looking vibrant and holding hands, and going strong at 86 and 90 and counting. I mean, really, LOOK at them. They are marvels to behold. I think great-grandma's hip surgery put a spring back into her step! They are sitting in our brand new swing. The other one had become completely trashed and Dennis tried duct-taping the ripped top together, but the wind tore it right apart so we had rips AND duct tape and that sent him over the edge. But then after he put the new one up I said, "aw, let's keep 'em both up for the Easter Egg hunt and then mom and dad can have their very own swing."

All I want for Easter is my two front teeth. Viv's hair is so pretty, Jane did it!

Mr. Eli Andrew Sweat Esquire

The ever-unpredictable Jane doing her fairest milk maiden pose!

Lovely, leggy Emma beaming on the rocks. I so LOVED having Emma and the grandkids posing for these photos and being able to enjoy their colorful, lively selves at this point in time. I've been waiting a whole year to take them with the fence as the backdrop too!

Shiny, happy, sassy Reagan!

The search is on! WithTony using the hammock in new and unusual ways.

Lady Lauren.

That can't be comfortable!

Oh how I love to see folks in a swing!

Dang, for some reason I can't write anything under the photo before this, but see Reagan behind Cindy with the teeny little camera? That was my favorite find for 2015 - little 75 cent plastic cameras that were view finders with Easter photos in them. It made my day.

I'm not sure how Cal ended up with $2. Everybody gets $1 (except the lucky finder of the golden egg, which was Jane this year, and they get $5).

This is too cute. Those cheeks! Those eyes! Those smiles!

Little Reggie doing what she and lots of our grandkids LOVE TO DO, read, on a swing, in the sun, barefoot!

Action shot of Lolie - pretty good they could make those 99 cent jumpropes work!

Dennis wanted to hide the $5 egg in this tree, amongst the mirrored eggs but I told him it was too hard. I should have let him do it, me and my bossy mouth. I think the kids would have eventually found it.

Their good side!

Even better side!

Cute girls with their haul. Emma always has purple eggs, Vivi pink.

Ethan and great-grandpa once again expounding on the wonders of cinema together. I am so grateful they get to enjoy one other and share their passion.

And these next few photos KILL me. Just snapped away.....

Once the finger went for the nose I decided it was time to quit.....

However, ever the lady, Vivi then settled down and learned how to make deviled eggs! She was a pro. So careful and listened so intently. And Eli loved them.

I love these kids, love dying Easter eggs with pretty pastel colors (or some of them were jewel-toned and sparkly, which ended up seeping through to the "whites" of the eggs so we had some deviled eggs the next day that I ate that had "pinks" and "blues" instead of "whites". The strong, acidic smell of vinegar from my childhood when my mom and dad mixed the little tablets of Easter egg dyes is such a strong memory for me. It makes the glands at the tip of my jaws seize up just thinking about it!

Happy, happy spring! XO Mom

"We are all children of our Heavenly Father. And we are here with the same purpose: to learn to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves." Joseph B. Wirthlin

P.S. - I called this "A Peep at my Peeps" and there were no Peeps Pictured!!