Tulips Galore

Every year around this time there's an annual Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I see ads, billboards, flyers etc. for it and I always have intentions of going, but time slips by and then it's too late. Despite it being a gloomy Utah spring season, the Gardens were still open, and two weeks to go until the wedding, a nice nature walk was just the thing to calm our nerves. As you can tell from the picture, we are both still wearing our coats...yepp good ol' Utah weather.

 We happened to have gone on "Dutch Day" when they have an area with local vendors and musicians set up to entertain. My dad served his LDS mission in the Netherlands, so I am somewhat accustomed to seeing wooden shoes, pictures of windmills, and indulging in the occasional treat of a Stropwaffel. Basically, its a wafer-like pancake sandwich, made with two very thin layers of waffle and a layer of caramel-syrup in the middle. They had vendors that were selling bags of them, but I wanted Michael to have the full experience, so we walked over to where they were making them fresh (more expensive, but worth it). We waited in line; the people in front of us were served and then the sweet lady turned to take our order but said, "I am so sorry! We just ran out of syrup, if you come back in 20 minutes we'll have some more." So much for a fresh, warm Stopwaffel to warm the heart and soul...I was more disappointed that Michael couldn't experience it though. We meandered around a little while longer before returning to the warm Visitor's Center. 

With the two week countdown officially in place, there are a lot of details that need to be taken care of on our end still. Although we had our leisurely afternoon walk around the beautiful gardens, we also had a very productive Saturday, running all sorts of errands. We were both a little freaked out recently when we read that you are much more likely to have a heart attack if you sit for 8+ hours/day regularly. I'm not worried about myself (I stand all day doing hair and running around my apartment complex) so much as Mike who sits at a computer at work;  so it was probably for the best that we were standing all day. It reminded me of many-a-trip to New York City where I was forced to use my legs as my main source of transportation, and in awe of the magnitude of my surroundings, I wouldn't realize just how tired I was until I plopped down at the end of the day (or stopped at a Brookestone store and sat in their massage chairs). I had better get used to that feeling, because that is how it will be for the next two weeks, although I think there will be plenty of "tulips" to distract me.