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