Tulip Festival

Usually Joseph takes my car to school. This Monday, however, I had the car for a doctor appointment. Since I had it we took advantage of it and I took the girls to Thanksgiving Point. Sophi wanted to go to the "dinosaur place" so that is where we went. I was surprised as a big banner outside the museum though, that said the tulip festival went through May 7th... cause that is this weekend! I thought I had more time than that, doh! I didn't want to let another spring slip away without going to the gorgeous gardens. I texted my dad letting him know it was ending this weekend if he wanted to try and go with me. This afternoon he called saying he's been swamped at work and asked if I had gone yet. I said not yet, but his call made me resolve to do it now. The older kids were gone at a school concert, but I had a car, so off we went, yay! Making it happen. It was 6:30 pm, good lighting for taking pictures. Owen was a sweetheart the whole time, just chilling in his stroller throne. Abi was a good helper and they liked the flowers. At first they asked what we were going to do there. "Just walk around and look at flowers. You might think it's boring, but it is beautiful!" They were ready to not have a good time, but I think were pleasantly surprised by just how many flowers there were to look at. We aren't just walking around the neighborhood looking at people's yards - THIS is a feast for the eyes!!

It is seriously paradise - heaven on earth, the garden of Eden!! It is amazing, totally filled my cup.

 So beautiful.

Abi and Lily and their friend Jules played on the hill by the waterfall amphitheater while I walked around with Owen and took pictures.  Petals from the white tree blossoms layed like a thin layer of snowflakes on the grass.

Heaven!

I was so glad we were able to go. We were at the furthest part of the gardens when a man on a golf cart came by to tell us that is was almost 8:00 and the gardens were closing and to proceed toward the exit. So we were there for an hour but I could have stayed longer... might have to go back again tomorrow. After we got to the car, I couldn't find my keys. It was dark and everything was closed, but after going back to the main garden center and pounding on the doors they opened for us and we were able to ask if any keys had been turned in, "Are you Tiffanie?" Yes! Thank you! The kids felt we had a good chance of being stuck for the night. I was worried I'd left the keys in the car, but then remembered I had them at the admission desk. So, that made us 30 minutes late, but we were on our way at 9, and yes, weather permitting (slight chance of rain in the forecast) we'll be back tomorrow!

Storms of Life

This morning Melodie went to check on her guinea pigs and Medusa wasn't moving. Mel had to leave for school, so she woke up Wesley to further asses the situation and see if Medusa was lethargic or if it was something worse. Wes called Mel 10 minutes later as we were close to school and said Medusa was dead. We got Medusa in 2012. Our first impressions were a little rough, but she's been a good pig and we will miss her. Mel stayed in the car for a while to try and calm down her tears before going into school. But her friends could tell she was sad, and Ethan told her friends what had happened ~ Mel's pet guinea pig had died. Then the kind friends wanted to give a surprise for Melodie to cheer her up. The surprise was a new baby guinea pig. Ethan called to get approval, and I said okay (I wish I wasn't such a softy...) Mel came home from school and went to her room to continue to let her feelings heal, and her friends arrived shortly thereafter and knocked on the door. They hid around a corner, leaving a little bundle of fur in a box on the doorstep. I knew it was them and asked Mel to go answer it.

So, Medusa was gone, and Mel was sad, but now we have Vanilla, and she's happy again. Medusa, I'm not sure if it is mean to you for us to spend so little time mourning your departure, or if it's actually a compliment and shows you just how much we loved you that we couldn't even live 24 hours with you gone and had to fill in that missing gap immediately. So, yeah, sadness turned into joy by Mel's compassionate friends and sibling (and her friend's older brother who footed the bill and did the driving to the pet store). Everyone was excited about our new arrival ~ neighbor kids came over, all the kids were in the backyard playing with Vanilla, they made a new home for her and tried to introduce Hamlet and Vanilla to each other.

Then Mel took a break to come with me and my dad as we went to the Tulip Festival again, as we had planned before Vanilla arrived. We left Vanilla in the good care of her many babysitters. The weather forecast said it was going to rain, and the gray clouds seemed to confirm the truth of that, but we figured we'd bring umbrellas and take our chances getting wet just to have a chance of seeing the beauty of the flowers again. My dad hadn't been down to the tulip festival for a few years. Fortunately we go there right after the storm had passed and did not get wet at all. Unfortunately, the storm that hit the gardens was a brutal hail storm. It hailed, and hailed hard. The tulips were toast.

It was sad to see them all destroyed and form gone, but the colors were still there, even it was just on the ground. The second photo in yesterday's post is a before, here one of the afters:

Tulips that were new and hadn't fully blossomed weathered the hail well.

Ones that were shielded by trees did okay too. The ones that were out in the open got pretty hammered. They looked like they feel how Corey does after work these days, just beat up.

Look at these two cuties! I love Owen and Natalie!

And I thought this was a cute shot - my dad pushing Owen and Natalie in the stroller, Mel walking beside him. I was able to enjoy a nice stroll as my dad pushed the stroller most of the time.

It looked like half of the tree blossoms on this purple tree were hit to the ground during the storm making a nice purple ground covering - can't totally see it here, but you get the idea.

So it was great to be able to go to the festival again, love the Thanksgiving Point gardens - what a treasure and gift to our community. I love it.

Dinosaur Museum Again

I had a really bad night of sleep last night. It seem like Peter woke me up every 30 minutes with his fussing. Then Daniel and Peter were both awake and following me into my room at 4 am when I tried to sneak away to go in and charge my phone. Blah. It rained in the valley last night and was snowing in the mountains up until 7 am this morning. Then it cleared up and now it's a beautiful sunny day with highs at Alta only getting to 34 by this afternoon, it would have been a perfect day to ski. Sigh. Corey said he can't go on Friday either. Maybe I can get Hyrum to come with me. We'll see. So I was already feeling a little cranky this morning, and wishing I was up in the mountains instead of here... and then I had Daniel pestering me to let him go to school. (I really wish he wasn't a September birthday...) Poor kid has to wait until next year! As in 2022! He's more anxious than Abi was, and he can get a little bossy and mean... I need to figure out how to handle his "mindless, inexhaustible, unstoppable, repetitive, and nagging demands!" (name that movie!). When fall 2022 comes around, I'm considering getting him tested to join the 1st graders, cause he is already ready, he'll be super ready in 2022 and kindergarten might just be boring. But we'll see when the time comes. 

So I was on the computer looking into preschools, and he was breathing down my neck cause he wanted to do something NOW and TODAY and coloring and painting wasn't going to cut it. So I thought hmm, it's almost time for the Tulip Festival. We've had a year pause of our membership, I think it's a good time to get our Membership again. So we did, and we scheduled an appointment to go down to the dinosaur museum at 6:30. Then Daniel said he wanted to go NOW and I let him push me around, so I called and changed it to 4:30, and we got our shoes on and went to go wait for Sophi and Natalie and Owen to get off the bus. We loaded in and off we went. Yay! The Dinosaur Museum!

The girls were having flashbacks - "I remember coming here when I was little!!" (as in two years ago) You girls still are little, but that is fun that they feel so grown up and feel like they've had so much life experience that they are able to look back and remember when they were little. (Ok, I guess you were pretty little 5 years ago). Natalie showing Peter the ways of the sand table. 

There were no aprons or costumes right now with covid.

It was fun. They were happy that they were able to do their little Lion King reenactment on Pride Rock again (see pic #16) although Peter is getting too heavy.

And I am also glad that we weren't able to just go visit every attraction that the kids felt drawn to. "We need an appointment, we'll go there next time." This will be good for us to plan before hand what we'll do. And here's another photo of today, Peter eating his steel cut oatmeal. 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how Peter says "Day-doo Mommy" when I give him food or a cup of water or a kiss on the head. It is the cutest thing ever. He gives the best hugs and the best words of thanks. The older kids love it too, and I often point out to them "You know how when Peter hugs your or is sweet and your heart just melts and wants to scream at his cuteness at the same time? Well, that is JOY. That is what we want in life, and you find it in children." Sure, all the Captain Hook complaints are there too, but it's a good trade. You gotta have opposition. I'll take the endless demands he'll make as a 4 year old if it means I get a few more months of hugs and his "Day-doo Mommy"-s. 

Tulip Festival Assassin

Joseph and Melodie had a concert tonight at Thanksgiving Point. Yay! I got to go to the Tulip Festival!

We had such a late winter and it's been such a cool spring that all the tulips were still in full bloom and looking gorgeous

Totally filled my cup.

They performed with Lexi Walker, who is such an amazing and passionate singer, wow. And to walk around the gardens before the show was just heaven.

The "Light of the World" garden was still under construction last time we had memberships, so I hadn't seen the finished product. Again, just amazing.

Thanksgiving Point is a gift to Utah, it fills me with thankgiving!! So Corey and I listened to the first half of the program, and then we got a few pictures ~

Us, then us with a bit more of the stage

...and then Corey headed home - we didn't quite trust to leave our sitters or babies alone for as long as the concert was going to last.

I walked Corey to the car so I could get Joseph's water gun, which had been misplaced by me earlier in the day. I walked around the garden more and took more pictures.

The sun was starting to go down.

 And it was getting cooler.

 And I took a few more pictures and said "you are so pretty" to a few more flowers.

None of these were with my good camera this time, just with my phone.

But I figured since I haven't done anything with my pictures from years past (2016 before and then after the hailstorm), there isn't a need for me to take a hundred pictures again. Just a few...

...cause it's just beautiful. I told Corey that we might need to retire close to Thanksgiving Point someday so that I can come and go on my morning walks around the gardens. Heaven on Earth!!

Soon it was getting too dark for photos...

So I went to the bathroom and then back to the concert.

The songs Pure Imagination and Tiny Voice touched me the most. I want to imagine and dream and follow my heart. I want to make a difference in the world, even if my voice is small.

Beautiful concert, beautiful music, beautiful smells, beautiful flowers. Heaven. After it was over, I had a funny plan to scare the bejeezus outta Joseph. He was so paranoid about his assassin being at the concert to get him it was funny. It was even more funny cause earlier in the day he had been so depressed and disheartened that there had been no attempts on him and no one chasing and it was so boring!

He was all ready to fight and to have to defend himself and... nothing.

Funny video of him being depressed~

So, to give him a good scare, after the concert, as musicians were packing up their instruments... I just walked up onto the stage and got right behind him. Locked on target....

My first shot got his jacket, then I shot again and got his neck. He looked to the side and a little behind him and I could see that he had a look of "you gotta be freakin' kidding me..." on his face, until he saw it was me, and then I was laughing so hard.

It was so funny. I got him good. He kept that gun close to him the rest of the night... we had to walk like half a mile to the car!! Will he make it!?!?

He felt like James Bond wearing his tux, lol. Bass clarinet in one hand, $3 Shopko watergun in the other... He's armed and ready!

I kept quoting the Ten Commandments scene in my head where Seti is giving advice to Ramses after Moses was presented in chains for treason: "Harden yourself against subordinates. Have no friend. Trust no woman..." lol. Joseph said his heart was still racing from my attempt on him, he's on major defense now!

Another funny thing - on the way home, Joseph texted the person that is his next target... cause he knew that his target hadn't assassinated their person and that they were going to be eliminated at midnight anyway, and Joseph thought it would be fun to have three kills, so his text went like this:

"You don't want like a cool death?" So funny.

So great date night tonight. We didn't go out last night because Corey was at youth conference up at Aspen Grove with the young men from our ward. And I was at Joseph and Ethan's Madrigals and Jazz Band Concert at Skyline ~ "Mads in the Moonlight". A few pictures from that -

Joseph was doing double duty going back and forth between the jazz band and the Madrigals

It was a 40's theme. Some of the Madrigal's songs - Chatanooga Choo Choo, Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree, I Gotta Gal in Kalamazoo. I thought the funnest Jazz song was Sing Sing Sing, really fun. Ethan, Joseph, you're talented kids, just like your father.

Sunday Afternoon

Just another Sunday afternoon in Brazil. Natalie usually always falls asleep on the drive home. Here she is last Sunday.

When the kids have to be quiet for their sleeping baby sister, that always turns into a good time for us to take a nap too.

I thought this was cute that she had her thumb in her mouth. 

The kids usually color and play. they built forts yesterday.

I love Sophi's little people.

One fun thing - yesterday I was the piano accompanist for the ward choir! Isn't that impressive? Where else but here in Brazil would I be presented with the opportunity to be the #2 go to person when it comes to piano playing. Pretty funny, but a great blessing. I might ask our RS President back at home if I can play for the Relief Society when we get back to the states, it would be nice to have an excuse to keep practicing and playing. Although I will have a new baby soon... I better take advantage of the time I have now. But I'm really grateful for this opportunity, it's a great blessing.

The weather is great right now. There are beautiful flowers all around.

I learned recently that the orange flowers on the tree are called the African Tulip Tree. They are constantly in bloom, very pretty.

They line the whole street outside. Here is where I go for my walk three times a week, the sidewalk on the right there goes all the way around Parque Portugal.

Our house is just right across the street from the park. Here is our brick wall.

Our front gate door

 And the gate for the car on the left.

It was really nice to come home after spending a night in that beach hotel last Thursday night. Even though after we arrived "home" Sophi said kept saying "Not that home..." which made us smile. She was pretty disappointed we showed up at this place instead of in Utah. Sorry Soph, that's a bit of a longer trip to get to there, but we'll go, we promise. Life here has started to feel a little too normal, which means it's about time to wrap things up here. Another 5 weeks and we will really be home.