Thursday, May 21, 2015

Tulip Festival 2015

I made it back home - Orange City, Iowa, for the Tulip Festival this year! It was the 75th annual Tulip Festival so they had a few extra things planned and a group of my high school and college friends were planning on getting together after far too many years apart. It was such a great weekend! I'm so glad my brother and his family still live in town so it still feels right to go back home and visit all my childhood favorites :) I also love just walking around town and seeing so many familiar faces. We even ran into a few college friends from Iowa State that we hadn't seen in years. 

The highlight was getting dressed up in Dutch costumes and taking some pictures with the kids and scrubbing streets at the beginning of the parade on Saturday.
The tulips were passed their prime, but there were still a few good beds.
Thank you to our friend Holly for outfitting the youngest two and me!



For as much complaining as I got from Rebecca while waiting to start, she had a great time once we got started!
Blake also loved filling his bucket and dumping water on the street. Making it clean for the queen and her court!
Blake was a little concerned his pants were getting wet :)
There are 2 parades each day and we watched 3 of the 6 parades. Blake wanted me to take pictures of his favorite things of course.
Pride of the Dutchmen Marching band - Blake says that the song they play is now his favorite song.
Budweiser horses and wagon.
Unity Christian High School float with a nice tractor (which is what Blake liked :)
This float has been around since I was a kid :)

Blake loves trains!
and boats!
It was also fun to see familiar faces from Pella. Here is the Pella Christian School Middle School band.
Some other fun things we did were go to the airport for a fly in breakfast and visit with old friends.
Great girl friends from high school and college. We got together at a friend's house, but also got to hang out watching a parade together.
Just some of our kids.
The rain in the morning kept the planes on the ground, but the kids still had fun looking at them.
Here are a few last pictures of our fun weekend in Orange City.
We grabbed a photo with Tulip Queen Cara while walking around.
Blake loved the car ride!
Rebecca was way more adventurous and road the Screamer twice!
The Screamer
The caterpillar roller coaster was also a hit with her.
Thanks so much for Tonya for hosting us. The kids had a great time with cousins Caleb and Deborah too!