Tulip Festival

 

It was a COLD trip to the Tulip Festival this year.

I also forgot to charge my camera battery before we left and it died as we were taking photos.  Definitely disappointing, but I was able to take a handful.  It was just so cold and rained a bit as well so it just wasn't as enjoyable as in years past. 

If Dan and I look suspiciously young in the first photograph it's because I put some of my new photo editing to work on it.

For fun, here's the photo that was taken straight out of the camera (or SOOC)....

 

And here's after I played with it in Light Room.

 

I can now do virtual Botox! :)  AND bring blue skies to our cloudy Pacific NW!  I think I made Dan too Plastic-y.  I'm learning.  Seriously though, it was a fantastic class, and I'm really excited about all that I learned.  It does take a while (at least for me) to do an edit like the one above, but nice to at least have the tools to do it when I need/want to.



After we arrive we always head to the fields to take photos.   When the kids were little they ran willy nilly down the path by the tulips.  They field just called to them to run.

Love that Kitti and Grace are still wanting to do that.

 

You are not supposed to pick the flowers.  Soooo hard for this flower-picking-girl of mine.  That is asking a LOT.  But she did very well!

My boys don't enjoy posing in the fields.  But that's just part of the deal.  The little carnival area is what they really get excited about.  But they know it's important to me and so they go along with it.  I think it's good practice for them to do things like this for when they are married and their wives have requests along these lines! :)



I didn't get great individual shots of the kids this year.  Or many good ones in general.  That's okay ~ there's always next year!  I do like this one because of Matthew's arm hooked with Andrew's and Kaitlin daintily holding up the apron to her dress.



And another.....

 

It would be fun to see our collection of tulip photos with Shannon's girls, side by side through the years.  They start when Kaitlin was just 3 months old.  I remember going out that day and just feeling so grateful to be out in the sunshine.  This little crew is just growing up much too fast.



Andrew had turned his ankle at a birthday party held at a Trampoline park the day before.  It was quite swollen and he was hobbling around.  Dan had to carry him a bit.



The most disappointing part about that was not getting to do the bungee jump that the kids love.  So he was treated to cotton candy instead and he was quite pleased!



Matthew is so great at getting down to business and smiling for me.



He is so easy to parent. And just such a great kid.  Quite simply, a joy.

The Bug was quite pleased with the flower fields.



I think she would have happily played and posed for much longer had my battery not died.











And this is where my battery died!

We quickly ate some lunch and limited the kids to one choice at the carnival (instead of two) as the adults were ready.to.go.  It was COLD. 

Hopefully next year we'll have better weather.  But cold or not, the Tulip fields are so beautiful to behold and it simply wouldn't be Spring without our visit to see them.