May's incredible events - not including my birthday party!

Hi everybody!
I know it's been awhile again, but I just want you to have lots of info to process each blog.

Well, since my last entry it was Tulip festival - for those of you unfamiliar, my mom's hometown of Orange City, Iowa celebrates its dutch heritage every 3rd weekend in May with parades and tulip displays. Well, this year I did not get to attend, but we had our own festival in the backyard. In our festival I got to be the Tulip Queen... Boscoe was on the Tulip Court just like Aunt Julie was a few years ago in the Orange City festival. Mom and Dad said that next year I will get to experience this delightfully Dutch time - I'm looking forward to it.

Here I am posing as the Queen - elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist (that's the tulip wave - try it out)

Mom told me she had never seen a tulip queen who was the same height as the tulips - that's what made me such a perfect candidate for queen!

After finishing this year's duties as the Tulip Queen, I spent some time relaxing with Koen (he's super Dutch) after a backyard volleyball party at our house - we had Mom and Dad's volleyball team, which took first place, over to relive their championship glory days on a Saturday afternoon.

Once the tulips met the volleyball, they had to come inside for safety's sake - then they met me!

Umm... Koen... that's where the knives are... Mom are you going to let this happen?!

Following the festival, the volleyball game, and the knife snatching came meeting my dad's good friend Nate. Nate used to work with Daddy, now he lives in New York and got married last weekend - congratulations Nate and Cathy!!

Nate and I getting acquainted.

Next, I got to experience the backyard a little - turns out that I like grass and the breeze/wind in my face.

Boscoe and I both like to gulp the fresh breezes.

To prepare for our big vacation to Okoboji, IA, Mom and Dad enrolled me in swimming lessons. I had two lessons and I cried a little the first time, but the second time I was like a pro. I was doing dives, the backstroke, and the butterfly - ok, maybe I exaggerated a bit... I can't do the butterfly quite yet.

Daddy helps psych me up for lessons.

I'd like to see you all try this trick - I held this posture throughout my whole first lesson. In lesson two I was so much more advanced that I only had to hold my feet for a little while.

Grandma - we are going to have so much fun with our noodles at Okoboji!

I'm a natural in the water.

Mom dunked me - I'm stickin' with Daddy from now on in the pool!

I experienced a pretty cool thing over Memorial Day weekend. I got to take my first plane ride.
We went to California with Scott, Andrea, and Molly. Scott, Andrea and Daddy went to hang out with Andrea's folks in San Jose while Mommy and Molly went to see their old roommates from college at Pebble Beach. I went back and forth between places and I'm now a seasoned traveller in California.

Here we are in the Denver airport waiting for the plane to San Jose, CA.

I usually don't get to watch much tv, but on the plane I watched lots. By the way, I was a superb traveller - I slept most of the flight and was pleasant the rest of the time.

Daddy, Scott and Andrea went to the Monterey Aquarium while Mom took me to hang out with her friends on Friday.

They saw some pretty interesting creatures while they were there - can you spot the sea horse?
Those of you who know Lyndsay and her family can refer to their blog to see similar pictures of sea horses.

Here are Mommy's roommates - they don't look a day older than when they graduated!
left to right: Molly, Mommy, Lyndsay, Mary, Tonja, Renee, and Charissa

Daddy, Mommy and I posing for a picture at Half Moon Bay - we had lunch there on Sunday before heading in to San Francisco.

It was a pretty cold day, but that doesn't stop these hardcore surfers.

We stopped for a photo by the surfers.
This is Howie (Josh to some), Andrea, Scott, Mommy and Daddy - I was in the car with Andrea's mom enjoying the heater.

Here we are in the city, Diann, Andrea's mom guides us with the map.

The little family on the San Francisco Bay.

Well, I know this has been a lot of stuff, but I hope you enjoyed it - I know I'm having fun experiencing all these new things with Mom and Dad.
God Bless!
Love, Lydia