Tulips

From the looks of this photo, you might be thinking that I am the extreme blipper who braved the rain soaked ground for this photo. Laid on my back to get the perspective of looking up at these beautiful tulips dressed in fresh crisp raindrops.......

No. I was actually the blipper hovering under the huge umbrella tent at the Tulip Festival photographing this planter pot full of tulips. Tulips that were being pounded on by hail and rain. HAIL IN APRIL. The tail end of April no less. That being said, we didn't even make it out to the endless fields of colorful Tulips. The sky literally opened up and dumped a couple of months worth of rain on us in the matter of minutes.

So there we were, my Mom, Dad, sister, my kids, and my nephew......bundled close under the cover waiting out the downpour of rain. These words popped up in my head as we were all standing there, "These tulips better be worth it!!!". Words from my sister who got so extremely lost trying to find the place, she almost turned around and headed back towards home. So I looked at my sister and I said, "So, was this worth it???". "NO, LET'S GO TO THE OUTLET MALLS" she said. So five minutes later, we were all headed west again, towards the outlet malls.

Now the outlet mall. I have a funny little story about the outlet mall. We had just finished lunch and we were watching the kids play on the playground structure. A woman approached me and pointed to her friend who was holding up a camera. I said, "Oh excuse me, you are trying to take a picture" and I moved away so that her friend could take the photograph of her. "Oh no" the woman gestured (because I could tell that she did not speak English), "come into the photograph" she was saying. So I gestured back, "What? Me?......you want to take a picture of ME???". "Oh yes yes yes" head nodding up and down. I looked at my family like, "what in the world......". They offered me zero help so I just put on my biggest camera smile and posed next to her friend. Both of the ladies were giggling and giving me a thumbs up as they walked away. And I was so beyond confused. What in the world just happened? I looked at my family and said, "they just took a picture of me.......why did they just take a picture of me???" It was actually kind of a strange strange thing. I mean, I am a total photo dork and I loooove taking photos of my friends and family, but they didn't even know me and now I am forever etched into their photograph. Oh well, they weren't threatening or anything. It was just so strange.

And here is another funny little story that happened just ten minutes later. My sister and I were walking through the Nike Outlet store. It was crazy busy. People were everywhere. All of a sudden, someone punched me in the shoulder. "Oooookaaaay", I thought, "I just got punched in the Nike Outlet store". So I turned back and standing just two feet away were two of my best friends from high school. "I should have guessed that it was you". And my one friend responded with, "Well yeah, who else would it be". And she was right, no one else but her would have punched me smack in the shoulder in the middle of a department store. We played sports together throughout our entire childhood. And in high school, it was Volleyball, Basketball and Softball all four years. It was awesome running into these girls. A blast from the past. Old friends with whom I have so much history with. So many memories, stories, blackmail moments......you name it, we all grew up together and seeing them today just brought it all back.

Today was a day that started as, "Hey, let's all meet up at the Tulip Festival for the day" and it quickly turned into something else leaving room for a few random moments, some great laughs, a couple of fantastic buys, and greats laughs. Did I already mention great laughs? So here is my blip of the Tulip Festival. Thank goodness they had flower pots full of Tulips since we didn't even make it past the front entrance.

Nighty night cha'll.......