Tulips are better than one!

A few weeks ago Amit announced that he and Marinda needed a "bucket list" of things to do before D-day (Due-Day, when the baby is born, come on!  We're clever!)  and what would you guess was the first thing on his list?  The Tulip Festival!  "Wait - hold on a sec!" Amit said when he saw this line.  "That was the first thing on a list with no particular order.  Everyone knows I think flowers are useful only because they give bees something to do in between making honey for me to eat."

Every year about 60 miles north of Seattle in a quant little valley there are farmers who grow tulips.  And we don't mean just some nice front gardens, we mean as an agricultural crop with fields of bright, colorful flowers!  On Monday afternoon we hopped in our car and headed north to Mount Vernon, Washington.  (Little known fact - George Washington was named after Washington state, and he named his plantation after this Mount Vernon.  Seriously, I read it on this awesome blog.)  After a quick stop in the cozy downtown area to get a map of where to go and a snack, we headed off into the fields.  "I was expecting the entire valley to be covered in flowers!"  Amit said of the drive to the growers.  "You know, instead of amber waves of grain you have rainbow waves of tulips!"  We arrived at one of the growers and paid our $5, and we were not disappointed.  "Sure it wasn't the whole valley, but it was plenty in my book!"  Marinda said while dancing around excitedly (or at least she would have been if not for Luke).

Marinda got her dramatic Baby Belly Shot!

Can you believe Amit took this was our point and shoot?
Beautiful!

Marinda posed for this great shot of the rows (you couldn't
walk between the rows, but you could go in a little for
pictures) and then needed help getting up again...

The gardens were amazing!

THEY'RE FUZZY!!

Afterwards we stopped off at Snow Goose Produce for some ice cream that had been recommended by some friends.  There was a slight heart attack (at least for Marinda) when we saw the sign saying that they only took cash.  Scrapping together what was in our wallets, we realized that we only had enough for one ice cream cone.  Convinced that we were making memories and that was what counted, we got in line anyways.  Little did we know that this was NOT some chain-ice-cream-shop, this was a country stand and it turns out that they do things a little BIGGER out of the city!  Needless to say, one cone was DEFINITELY enough!

Yup!  This was the SINGLE SCOOP!

This was also the first week Amit got to go to the baby prep. class he and Marinda signed up for.  The seven week series started last week while Amit was out of town and Marinda had to go alone, but from here on out Team Baby will be getting their training together!  "I originally thought this class might be a waste of time," Amit said afterwards, "but now I can see the value of going.  I mean, I get to tell Marinda when to breath!"  Yup, Amit is going to make a great birth partner.

We also have an exciting update on Operation Nursery: The Clutter is Gone!  That's right, Friday night Amit and Marinda made one last push and now the only things in the nursery are stuff that is going to stay there!  They still don't have a crib... or stroller... or anything really, but hey!  Now there storage room is PURELY for storing baby stuff!

This weekend was also Stake Conference (a churchy thing with lots of meetings) and Amit and Marinda heard many inspiring sermons, including two General Authorities (big church people) from Uruguay and Canada!

Amit also announced today that he only has 160 names left to index to reach his goal that he set last February of 1000 names before Luke is born!  THAT is impressive.  Marinda still has 900-something or other left...  yeah, we'll see if that happens.

Have a great week!