Tulip Festival with a little Poly Flavor

There are several reasons why I love my husband.  One of them being that he is such a good daddy.  The last night we were in Utah, I snuck down to Alpine to meet up with my "New Zealand" girls while Dallas watched our little guy.  It is such an incredible feeling leaving your baby and fully knowing that daddy will take amazing care of him.  Not to mention that he was surrounded by his grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin.  Daxton didn't even notice I was gone!
Heather and Katy have visited me in the bay area for five years now.  So when we made plans to visit Utah I knew I needed to see them somehow.  They came up with the great idea for meeting up at Thanksgiving Point for the Tulip Festival.  I jumped at the chance!  After living in the Utah valley for ten years, I had never been to the tulip festival!  Not sure how I managed that...
It did not disappoint!
All the flowers were in bloom with some of the most amazing array of colors.  It was a perfect evening!

(I took a million pictures and struggled choosing which ones to post.  Sorry there are so many!)

The best part of the evening was getting to meet Mafa Jo!  Katy was 7 months pregnant when she came out to visit last October.  I talked/sang into her belly a ton, so I'm sure Mafa recognized my obnoxiousness!  She let me kiss all over her, which I couldn't get enough of.  Best chubby cheeks ever!

Heather, Katy, Mafa Jo, and I at the entrance of the gardens.

We took lots of little breaks to feed Mafa while walking throughout the gardens.  She was such a sweetheart through it all!  It was so much fun to see Katy fall so effortlessly into the mother role.  She's an amazing mommy and loves her baby more than anything.  How could you not with that smile!?

Mafa's one cry when she was sick of posing for the camera...

I love these girls so much!

The gardens are massive!

Luckily Heather has an annual pass and showed us around, or else we would have been lost on those grounds for hours!

The small lake was even stocked with all sorts of colorful coi fish that you could feed.

My favorite spot was the secret garden.

You entered through a covered tunnel.  It brought back a lot of memories from my childhood watching the movie/broadway play and listening to the music.  It was gorgeous!

The "secret" entrance

Inside the secret garden...

Another section I thought was incredible, were the statues of Christ's life.  Thanksgiving Point is doing a preview of a showcase that will be featured in their gardens in the coming months.  I can't remember the artists name, but she made three to scale statues and then several miniature statues to represent different stages of Christ's life.  They will be placed throughout the gardens when finished.  They were absolutely stunning!  They talent that people have amazes me.  Here are the statues...

It is going to be stunning when finished.

When the sun started to set, we slowly made our way back to the entrance, with Mafa fast asleep in Heather's arms.

We then went out to dinner and spent a couple hours talking each others' ears off.  I wish I could express how grateful I am for incredible friends like Heather and Katy.  It's crazy to think that I've known them for over a decade now.  Did we really live in NZ 10 years ago!?  I love them both so very much and feel so blessed to call them dear friends.  It was so good to catch up with them and I can't wait for our next adventures!
Love you both!