A Fish Out of Water (and Onto Paper)

A few weeks ago Daniel and Elizabeth were watching Finding Nemo, the Walt Disney animated film starring a clown fish named Marlin and his blue fish friend, Dory. It's not one of my favorites, though I do love the parts where Dory can't remember Nemo's name ("his son, Bingo" is one phrase that comes to mind). But the kids were enthralled with the movie. Of course, since we own the movie this was only about the 14,362nd time they had seen it, but this time they actually watched it all the way through without stopping.

Later that day, Daniel came up to me to show me his latest drawing. Now, normally his "drawings" are scribbles and don't make much sense to anyone but himself (I seriously believe he is often scribbling his mood and not trying to make actual pictures). But this time I was in awe of the masterpiece placed before me.

"It's the scary teeth fish from the movie," he states.

"Did you do this yourself?" I can barely stammer the question out.

"Yes. Except for this part Ammon had to help me," he replies as he points to the curved line that makes up the "fishing line" between the fish and the glowing ball in front of it.

What is probably more amazing than the drawing is the fact that the beast is hardly standing still in the movie, nor is it in the film for more than a few minutes. But it was enough to imprint its ugly mug into Daniel's head. And the most amazing of all is that Daniel is only 4 years old.

I excitedly congratulated him, and then we spent some time looking up this creature on the internet. We found out this lovely fish, by the way, is really called an anglerfish and most people believe it to be the ugliest fish on the planet.

Others may not see this exquisite rendering as something to get so excited about. But in our family, so far we have had a pitiful lack of artistic expression from anyone, so this is a big deal around here. Maybe he'll grow up to be like his Grandma Putnam (the watercolorist) or his Grandpa Goofy (the interior decorator/scene designer). Or he may just grow up to be something else, but I'll still be proud of his first fish.

Tulips, Tulips Everywhere

Yesterday we ventured north to the Skagit County Tulip Festival. Apparently this place houses the largest tulip fields in the world (yes, that includes Holland!) in a flat but fertile valley near the Puget Sound about an hour south of the Canadian border. We went with friends, and they took us through the back roads. It seemed as if we were swallowed by trees, but we did catch the occasional glimpse of the Sound as we sped past. Once we entered the valley, I instantly fell in love with the smattering of farm houses. Greg was more impressed with the smattering of restored cars on the road. At one point we followed a teal '55 Chevy (at least that is what Greg thought it was) through a small town, and I felt like we were transported back in time.

The first field we found was full of pinks and purples. It was a beautiful sight and the weather was absolutely gorgeous-perfect for strolling through the tulips. But there was nowhere to park. Apparently we weren't the only ones who decided to visit the tulip fields. (BEWARE: if you choose to go to this festival sometime in the future, be prepared for horrendous amounts of traffic and very little parking) So we were forced to find another field to visit. Around the block we were finally able to find parking near a field of orange, yellow and red tulips.

We started in the red tulips, and Ammon was disappointed when he read the sign that said: "Stay on the main road. Do not walk between rows." He was hoping to run through the field, with tulips on each side of him. Secretly I agreed.

We ventured on to the yellow tulips, and the children started to get a bit restless. They really wanted to get into the thick of things, so we kept catching them inching their way into the rows. Finally Elizabeth disappeared down one of the rows, but we had to get a picture before scolding her.

Once we reached the orange flowers, they turned out to be yellow and red variegated. They weren't as pretty as they were from a distance. I was really looking forward to seeing an orange tulip.

We stayed for about an hour, then headed back to the van. I was hoping to visit a few other fields, but it had taken us too long to get there and we were out of time. Maybe next year we will make a full day trip up and visit all the fields. There are at least a half a dozen tulip fields, but they also have daffodil and iris fields as well. By the time we arrived the daffodils had finished blooming but the irises had not yet bloomed.

We drove back out the way we had come in, but as we passed the pink and purple tulip field again I just had to stop and get photos. It was absolutely stunning to see. The pictures really don't do it justice.

Oh, and where was Grace through this entire afternoon? Sleeping, of course.

The Kissing Contest

I am often amazed at the different personalities in families. In my family, for example, we have The Bull (Daniel) who is stubborn and not easily swayed from his convictions, not to mention his predisposition to use his head as a battering ram. We also have The Dancer (Elizabeth), who spends her days flitting from room to room and changes into every dress she owns within a two hour period. There is also The Mover (Ammon) who likes to jump, run, spin and shout and who thinks "be quiet" means to yell a little less loudly. And of course, we have The Sleeper (Grace) who spends most of the day trying to get in a good nap.

Well this week I have noticed that Ben must be The Kisser in our family. And poor Grace is the recipient of this unabashed affection. How do I know? I held a kissing contest. Today I watched from a distance to see how often each child kissed the baby. And at the end of the day, each child had planted at least one on the poor dear. But the official tally sits at this:

Ammon-1 kiss
Benjamin-23 kisses
Daniel-1 kiss
Elizabeth-2 kisses

Yep. Ben is The Kisser. [Sigh] I hope this doesn't carry over into his dating years.

Forests and Farms

Oddly enough, there was no rain yesterday (and if you would have seen the weather around here lately you would have understood why that is so odd) so we spent the day away from the house. First, we dropped Greg off at work in Bellevue and took Ammon and Ben to their classes at the local coop, then after lunch with Greg we decided to visit the Bellevue Botanical Gardens.

At first I was unsure if the kids would appreciate it, but they enjoyed whooping and hollering through the garden for almost two hours. (And I really wished I could have personally apologized to the half-dozen or so people wandering through there at the same time!)

The garden, like most of the Seattle area, has the tallest trees I think I have ever seen. They aren't big around like redwoods, but they shoot straight up to the sky. Some were conifers, most were deciduous, but all of them were so old that they towered above the buildings surrounding the gardens. So when we took the nature trail that looped for 1/3rd of a mile through undeveloped ground, Daniel was a bit unsure about what he called the "forest." I can imagine how much more intimidating those tall trees must have been for such a little guy.

We still had a few hours until Greg was finished with work, so we decided to check out the Kelsey Creek Farm Park around the corner from the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. Hidden inside a neighborhood, we finally arrived and drove past the barns and farmhouse. The farm itself was closed by the time we got there, but some sheep and goats were penned next to the road. We stopped and looked at them from the car. Each sheep was covered in long, curly cream-colored wool so the kids laughed when they noticed the sheep could hardly see with all the hair in their eyes. But as we started to drive away, Ben remarked, "Hey, mom! I thought sheep were white!"

I guess some things you just can't learn unless you see for yourself. Today we learned: 1) trees are tall and 2) sheep aren't white. Who knew you can learn so much in one day?!

Gracefully Blessed

It's not often the world is graced with such delicate purity. It only happens once a minute or so, but for us it has been three years since the last time we welcomed it into our home.

Grace was blessed on Sunday, March 30th in Sammamish, Washington. We shared the day only with church members and each other.

And Grace slept through the whole thing.