Tulip Festival 2015.

This year was Norah and I's first Tulip Festival! If you have never heard of it, you can learn more here. Basically, Orange City is a very Dutch town, and Tulip Festival is a huge annual Dutch celebration.

Wednesday night is Ride Night with all the rides, so Norah tried her first poffertjes (basically mini pancakes) and rode the Merry-Go-Round!

This is The Little White Store where they sell the poffertjes. It's only open during Tulip Festival (so only open 4 days a year!) and that's all they sell. Pretty crazy!

Aunt Elizabeth and soon-to-be Uncle Brett came along!

Thursday my grandparents came from Rapid City, SD to stay with us and join in the fun. We went to the night show, which was Mary Poppins. It was super good and I was extremely impressed (it was put on by locals). 

Friday we hit the parade!

The Queen and her court at the parade.

Dutch dancing.

Sweeping the street (a big tradition!).

The Pride of the Dutch marching band (my husband's high school). They march in every parade and play the same song each year and Kley gets so excited every single time. :) Here is our cousin, Ella, marching in it!

Saturday morning we ran the 5k race. I actually convinced Kley to run with me! (Kley really likes to play basketball with friends for his exercise, but doesn't really enjoy running like me.) We got poured on while running, but it was still fun and I am glad we did it!

My realistic goal was to beat my previous time (since this was only my second 5k), which was 31:32, and my dream goal was to run under 30. I finished at 30:47, so I was pretty happy! Kley finished at 32:56 and I was really proud of him! I think that's incredibly good for not being a regular runner- even good for running a lot!

Saturday my mom and brother came up and we hit the parade again. We got some great tulip pictures after!

Great Grandpa and Grandpa!

Grandma and Uncle Keaton!

Tulip Festival, you were a good one. Until next year, where you will see us debuting Dutch costumes!