...what a million tulips looked like? Well you should come and visit the Tulip festival up here in Skagit Valley. The flowers were so beautiful. And there were a lot of them. The farm that we ended up at had 40 acres of tulips planted in pink, purple, yellow and red.. it was gorgeous. I loved the yellow tulips, but my camera battery had died by the time we got there.. sigh..
We got there pretty early on in the day. Early enough, that I think we beat most the crowd because we almost had the place to ourselves. The spring rain had been turning on and off inconstantly throughout the morning, which made for some very slippery muddy pathways.
Little miss schmutz had a lot of fun. I think she enjoyed looking at the flowers, but that wasn't her favorite thing to do. Her favorite thing was to go and jump and stomp into the mud puddles. It was so funny, that I didn't have the heart to tell her not to, or to even care about how muddy she ended up. She had so much fun, but did end up slipping a time or two.
Here is my little kiddo practicing her funny faces again. I hope that someday when she looks at the camera she'll start smiling again.But the Tulip Festival was so much fun. We ended up spending the entire day there walking through the beautiful fields of tulips.. I hope we can go again next year!
...was found at the local thrift store. I occasionally will stop on by our local charity store and look for something specific (aka. frames, strollers, etc...) but while we are there we always check out the small toy selection for anything that looks like it might be worth the buck or two it costs.
It was wonderful that in the stash there were two potato head bodies and a whole bunch of accessories! Ashlyn now loves pointing out eyes, ears, nose, checks, mouth, hair, etc. So these potato heads came at a perfect timing.
Little miss schmutz and I would both dress up our potato head and then take them over to the table for their "photoshoot". Ashlyn thought it was awesome to see her potato head on the camera, and loved the idea of getting their pictures taken.
...with some colorful eggs. I think coloring eggs was our favorite part of easter this year. Everyone in our little family really got into designing and choosing the colors... as well as plopping the eggs into the cups and waiting {patiently} for the eggs to be done.
Our little miss schmutz loved seeing all the colors and stiring the mixtures together. She did take a taste out of a couple of them (..sigh..) but with the vinegar taste, I do not think she was very impressed.
The little wax color crayon turned out to be our favorite design tool of choice. We all were able to take turns colors different designs on our eggs. The most fun part was to see the designs be revealed after the lil eggs had been dyed.
After a while Ashlyn had a grand idea. How about.. instead of just coloring the eggs and ooh-ing and ah-ing over how pretty they were.. how about we just eat them! And eat them she did. All daddy did (in the picture above) was make sure our babe didn't eat the egg shell too.
Coloring eggs was so much fun. I am really sad that we usually only get to do it once a year. I might make it a family tradition to do it again in the fall.. how about thanksgiving eggs? .
... wasn't it? I think no matter where anyone was in the world, it was beautiful. The weeks before had seemed a little hectic and a bit overwhelming. I had found myself far behind where I wanted to be for Easter.
But yet, with a little bit of last minute dinner planning, a quick candy stop at target, and the forgotten "white" eggs bought just in time - Easter turned out relatively peaceful and full of warmth.
I would like to say our Easter was so peaceful because of General Conference {how wonderful it was!} or I would like to say our Easter was wonderful because we didn't make a big deal about the easter bunny or presents and such; and we, unknowingly, kept it very simple. I think our Easter was perfect because it was a little bit of both, and, of the fact, that we were able to celebrate the holiday as a little family (other than the yummy dinner).
The whole weekend was wonderful, peaceful, moving, and uneventful. I wish more weekends could be so good...
beautiful picture, no? I am just positive that you really really wanted to see this. But {sorry for the once that winced} I had to add it. Jake decided to start his family's vacation out with a mountain-bike-crasherific-outting, I am just glad Adam was there to make sure Jake woke up after his (who really knows how long) blackout. {It really didn't look nearly as bad after it was washed}
and.. here is my sweet little miss showing me her mountain biking injuries...
...oh... wait... she doesn't have any... 
But, continuing on... We had such fun when the Schmutz' visited! That is part of the reason I have been MIA for the past couple weeks. After everything settled down, I was still in vacation mode, and have now, finally, been able to get back down to real life and get myself organized. And, I have a TON of pictures to put up, so that is part of the reason for my blog absence.. it seems much too daunting to organize, touch up and post all the pictures that I would like {In a perfect world they would all be scrapbooked too... to up the wow factor... but, luckly, I am not perfect - because, if I was perfect, you all would die of sheer jealousy}
My little miss really has come to understand that her mother likes more of a documentary style of photography; and, because of this understanding, has decided to hardly ever smile for the camera.. what a sweetie.
The view of Seattle on the west side across the port in the Puget Sound (Alki Beach) from our table.
Ashlyn geared up for her day trip in the bike carriage.
For all those people who feel sorry for Jake because he has to put up with me.. here is proof.. it is really I who puts up with him...
Our little biker gang hanging around ready to go find some lunch.
Ashlyn decided that she needed the bagel more than the poor little ducks.
and in the end, good things come to those who are patient and un-murmuring!