Tulip Time

This week is another week off for Eric.  He actually only has 4 days of work left...soon we'll be off for phase 4 of our year in the States, Colorado.  More to come.  In the meantime, we are visiting some friends in West Michigan/Illinois this week.  First stop, Holland!  That's Holland, MI for the non-MI natives.  But certainly, some similarities to its European namesake.  Namely, the tulips!  Holland is full of tulips and has a big tulip festival every year.  We've never gone, since we hear it's crazy packed with tourists.  It's actually in late April or early May.  But THIS year, due to the abnormally warm weather, the tulips bloomed quite early.  The weather is pretty chilly again, so none of the blooms are open, but it was still beautiful to see the multicolored buds.

We visited a park in the downtown area with our friends, Jay and Laura.  Their son Levi became immediate fast friends with Maggie and Ben!

 Fields of tulips...

 Maggie especially liked the purple ones.  Ironically enough, because of the warm weather I had just given most of our borrowed winter clothing back to its original owners.  So Levi graciously loaned Mags the tiger hat.

 Levi will make a great big brother soon!

 Also at Jay and Laura's was every kid's dream toy:  a ball pit!  It was an inflatable swimming pool filled with plastic balls of all sizes and colors.  SO much fun.

 The obligatory kids in a bathtub photo:

 And many happy moments spent reading, side by side.

Thanks for the great visit, Jay/Laura/Levi!  On to the next adventure...