Tulips in Washington

We are so lucky to live in Seattle. I love it here. I really, really do. I'll be so sad when that day comes that we must move away. I'll be heartbroken if it's somewhere in the middle of the country where we don't have mountains or the ocean. I'm determined to make the most of every beautiful day. The forests and beaches here are full of adventures waiting to happen and secrets waiting to be explored. This is seriously going to be such a fun spring/summer! I'm so excited to be Jasper and Gideon's mom and help them discover all the beautiful things this corner of the world has to offer.

Okay, so back to the topic of this post. We went up North to see the tulips a few days ago. There are incredible fields of tulips up in the Mt. Vernon area and surrounding towns. Every year, there is a tulip festival when they are in bloom and you can drive up and see the glorious display of color. We put our bike rack on the top of our car, loaded up the bikes and trailer, and drove an hour up to La Conner. Once there, we got the kiddos loaded up in the trailer and took off. We biked about 4 miles and arrived at our first field. It was incredible yellow and contrasting red tulips, side by side. Truly beautiful.









The moment we arrived at the fields, we took note of the enormous mud puddles all over the pathway. Rob and I looked at each other and could see the anxiety in one another's eyes as we realized that we had not packed boots for the boys or a change of clothes. Darn. It was easy enough to convince Jasper to hop over the puddles rather than through them. Gideon was another story. He immediately ran straight toward them and threw a serious fit when we swept him off his feet just in time. The next 30 minutes were a bit challenging. Rob and I kept switching off and on Gideon duty, as we tried to take a few pictures and enjoy the scenery, while keeping him clean/dry. We'd just begun our tulip tour and didn't want to have a screaming, soaking wet, muddy kid right off the bat. Well, it was my fault that he finally did make it into the mud. Rob took Jasper to the bathroom and I was a bit distracted for a moment and Gid ran with all fervor toward a slippery puddle. The moment his foot hit the mud, he slipped, flew up into the air and landed flat on his back in the middle of a rather deep puddle. He was soaked head to toe on the backside! Poor little guy. Of course, he just wanted to do it again and again once he'd figured out how fun it was! Until he got cold about five minutes later. We packed the kids back in the trailer, rode 3 miles back to our car with two screaming kids, cleaned up and dried off, drove by a few more fields and then back home.

I wouldn't say our tulip trip was a flop. We had a great time, really. It was just a little bit muddier than I had expected. Now we know better for next year, right?