Mud and Tulips

Spring Break was last week and I was incredibly determined to rock it like the stay at home Mom I am.
I invited the cousins to meet us up at Tulip Town in Skagit Valley, to witness one of Springs most delightful displays, The Tulips.

It had decided to be beautiful all weekend so I was thrilled that we might have a gorgeous Spring day amongst the tulips and we could frolic in the warm sunshine and we wouldn't need mud boots.
We woke up that morning and it was raining.
We also woke up to the dogs being violently ill, so that was a bonus too.
Charlie decided to take the day off, he had a major headache and he was up at 5 am hosing out the dog crate, so that for sure was reason to take a day off.
I packed us up and made sure everyone had extra clothes and shoes and enough snack packs to last a few hours and we were off!
I always have to use the GPS to get us there because there are like 50 tulip places and its so confusing, especially since I'm never in the Skagit Valley anymore.
Siri led us on what seemed like a wild goose chase, but we arrived without incident, which is always marvelous.
Its fairly inexpensive to get in, 6$ per adult and I think 5$ per child above 6.
I ran up to the gate and shouted, "2 adults!" To the old lady at the ticket booth, before she could realize that the 2 meandering children were with us.
I call it the Shout and Pay Technique. Which I will shamelessly use until someone says something like "That child is clearly older than 6. Shame on you."
And I'll be like, "Screw you!" and run away, shamed.
Thankfully for my family and everyone around us, that scenario didn't play out.
We met up with Charlie's cousin and her family and the kids ditched us.
We walked out into the windy, cloudy day and prepared ourselves for mud.
There was lots of it.
There were also lots of tulips.

All the colors in the rainbow, beautifully streaking across the landscape and casually blowing in the wind.
The majority of them were open, which was really nice.
And of course, the mud puddles were huge, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed.
Glad I brought extra clothes and shoes.
We made our way through the crowds of people and galloped around the flowers.

The kids got their boots sucked up into the puddles and tore off their jackets.
Summer decided to uproot a few flowers and I tried to tell her nicely that we couldn't pick them, then Ashton decided to pick some up as well.
Do they really expect people to stay out of the flowers and the kids to not pick them?
Those are just outrageous rules.

We finished touring the colorful landscape and went inside to what is basically a huge place to spend your money.
Gift shop, another gift shop, all the tulips in bouquets with their names on them, a little river with insanely artificially blue water, a café and finally a face painter.
We've gotten their faces painted every year that we've come, its just a part of the experience for us.
I made them keep it to a minimum of 4$ art and we stood in line.
We finally got up to the front and Summer had wanted Ariel since we left the house and had been talking to us about it standing in line for 15 minutes.
I put her in the seat and she shouted, "I want a rocket!"
We looked at her puzzled, but she was utterly thrilled with the rocket on her cheek.
Steve was next and we had been discussing a donut and all the different color choices her had.
He got up there and told the guy he wanted a smiley face.
What?
They both walked away excited about their art and the guy got a nice tip, because I have no idea how much those designs cost.


We wandered back to the car and chatted while we changed our shoes and clothes.
They gave the kids snack packs on the way back and Summer fell asleep covered in M&Ms and rocket ship.
It was a good day.

Cheers.