Tulips & Grandparents

My parents came to visit this past weekend and we headed to the Skagit Valley Tulip festival. The town has fields of tulips decked out in stunning stripes of colored tulips backdropped by mountains. It was beautiful! We've gone once before but this time we went to Roozengaarde which has the tulip fields but also gardens full of interesting tulip mixtures, varieties, textures, and arrangements. Those were so fun to wander around in and happen upon. The mixtures and heights and textures of each section were lovely and they had it arranged so you  just wove in and out of them.

 

 Roslyn was mostly gentle with the tulips but she did manage to pick a few when we weren't paying attention. She seemed intrigued by them and liked holding onto them but in the end the walkway of rocks did hold her interest more.

We had a picnic in the grass among the tulips, ate some kettle corn, played ball with another little boy, and had such a darn good time!

Sister, soccer game, seaside walks

 My sister and brother-in-law came to visit last week. We were so excited they were coming that we let them sleep in the same room as us for a week on a pad from our van. Rolled out all the best for them :) Luckily they were troopers about it and at least didn't complain to our faces. Besides the sleeping arrangement though we had a really lovely time. The snow had finally melted off and the sun was warm enough to go play outside for extended periods of time.

We took the ferry over to Whidbey Island for the day and played on the beach. We taught them a game we had made up with some friends a few years ago. Tim was the ultimate champion. It involves throwing rocks at sticks but in the sunshine listening to the waves it was so darn lovely. Roslyn played her own version of the game which involved knocking over rocks, picking them up out of the sand, and then inserting them into her mouth to chew on the ends of them. 

Then we took a little hike to a meadow and a bluff overlook where we ate snacks and sat in the sunshine. It has been to cold and wet to really dump Roslyn on the grass at all since she's been able to crawl so we were really excited to see how she'd react. So we laid her down and walked away. She played with the blades of grass for awhile then started crawling around in it with big smiles. 

 One of the reasons they came out this time of the year was to go to FC Cincinnati's inaugural MLS game, which was against the Sounders. We sat in the Cincy fan section up in the nosebleeds and ate stadium food for dinner. As we cheered Roslyn added in with her clapping which she gave up to either team with no loyalty. She was just  happy to be in the crowd, until she fell asleep. She was the littlest FCC fan at the game and looked too darn cute in her scarf. Although Cincy lost we did score the first goal and we had a good time.

As our last adventure we went to high tea at Queen Mary's tea room. Mall and Tim went to England not too long ago and loved high tea so we took them here and we all enjoyed the giant pots of tea, finger bites, and gaudy décor together. They have a large room stuffed with people but they also have these two tables near the front room that stand alone and sit in front of their large windows. We luckily were awarded this table so Roslyn could roam around on the bench seats, we could soak in the sunshine, and we felt like we  had our own fancy private high tea. Even convinced Mallorie to wear the crown they gave us because her birthday is coming up.