We loaded up the RV and headed north last weekend.  We traveled to Holland, MI to the Tulip Festival.  Tulips are my favorite flower.  Every year for my early May birthday my honey sends me tulips.  This year he said he was just going to take me to them.  They were beautiful.  A sea of tulips everywhere.  The weather was absolutely beautiful, we picked a good weekend to go.  I have always been a fan of the antique tulip applique quilts.  Someday I am going to create one.  I know I have a tulip quilt in me.  One of the fun finds of the weekend was that the local quilt show was going on.  It was fairly small but they had some lovely quilts and quilts in a wide range of techniques.  I liked that there were all kinds of quilts.  It was fun also that they allowed pictures.  I have added a few here that were my favorites.  The applique basket quilt was done by hand and just amazing.  On the way home Sunday we stopped at a couple of wineries and did the tastings.  We made it home in time on Sunday to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with friends.  It was a really nice weekend.

I started my DNA story last time.  I will follow up a bit with it.  The first contact I had was from a gal in Pennsylvania.  She claimed that we were 1st cousins or closer per the Ancestry DNA site.  After some sleuthing through our dna matches we determined that we had to be from my birth father's side of the family.  We emailed back and forth and eventually after quite a few months the amount of dna we share determined that we are 1/2 sisters.  She was not given up for adoption.  Our father left her mother when she was two.  So, she had information and pictures of my father.  My middle son is the spitting image of my dad.  We always wondered where he got his height from and it was all my dad.  I found that my dad had passed in 2012 and had not led the most perfect of life's.  My 1/2 sister is a little over 2 years older than me and after he left she did not have much contact with him.  She was not aware of any siblings.  She is a real sweetheart and I can't wait to meet her in person.   We hope to get together this summer.  Oh, so much more to come concerning my finding family story.