Wild Flowers – William Quý Bùi

It’s Sunday morning, while we were still in bed, I told William that today we’d go to the yellow flower fields. Knowing that he does not like flowers, I told him to choose. “We’re going to the flower fields, if you don’t want to go, you can stay home with aunt Lily; Mama & Papa will go alone. Do you want to go with Mama & Papa or you want to stay home?” – Of course his answer is “Yes, I want to go”. Prime him ahead most of the time works out fine; I guess when he knows what to expect, he less likely to have behaviors for activities that he does not like.

Tim just had the Covid-19 vaccine shot yesterday morning. He felt tired and asleep until noon. William asked me several times, “Are we going or not?”. I told him “Papa is not feeling well so we might not going”. Around 3:00 PM, he asked again; Tim woke up by this time so I told William to go to the bed room and ask if Papa wanted to go. William ran in and I heard him asked “Papa, are we going to see the flowers?”.

It was the first time ever that we saw him so eager to go out to the flower fields. He hates flowers, he has never wanted to go near any flowers. Last week we went to see the mustard flowers in San Juan Capistrano, he insisted to sit in the car and refused to go out.

So we loaded up with some water and chips/cookies and soon on our way to Chino Hills State Park, where we heard that the mustard flowers are all blooming beautifully this week.

It took about 1 hour to get there: it was so crowded, a long line of cars after cars waiting to get to the park entrance, I guess because everyone wanted to see what nature has to offer. We saw lots of people walking back to their cars that parked along the road with sweat on their face: it was a sunny day and probably it was a long hike for them.

As we approached the park entrance, it was such a beautiful scene open before our eyes: hills and hills full of yellow flowers! Under the bright sunlight the yellow flowers were even shinier! William seemed so excited! When the ranger stopped us to give us some instructions: the road is narrow, with lots of people walking, so drive slow and safely. William said “OK” to each of his instruction!

The park entrance is $5.00 which is not bad at all. The road up hill is indeed narrow but lots and lots of flowers along the road. It’s such a beautiful landscape that no words can describe. Whenever we stopped to take the pictures, William would get out of the car and ran around. Whenever he gets excited like this, he does not care about his safety. He’d run around in the parking lot which almost gave me a heart attack of worrying some cars might hit him. He’s very fast, it’s hard to catch up with him.

We drove all the way to the end, and told him we’d hike a bit. He jumped out of the car and so ready to hike! It was the first time ever that he’s willing to hike around the flowers without complaining! I think he was just bored of staying home :).

The park closes at 7:00 PM so we headed out; we stopped at this most beautiful view point on the way out. William was still so excited that he was running around. I love to see him this happy!

He felt asleep for about 15 minutes on the way home. I’d be tired if I run around that much too.

Chino Hills State Park
4721 Sapphire Rd, Chino Hills, CA 91709
Open: 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM
$5.00 park entrace

There’s lots of hiking trails so wear comfortable shoes. I heard there’s rattle snakes here so be carefull.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PihZFBC5BmjXx7uU8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EigeVUiFmYEgR7HQ9

It’s been raining few days a week for the last 2 months here in Southern California which is very rare to happen; which is pretty good because we were so lack of water last year. This also helps the wild flowers to bloom so much that everyone is calling it’s a Super Bloom year. Of course with our love for wild flowers, it’s hard to pass this opportunity so we we went to Walker Canyon in Lake Elsinore last weekend, and this weekend too.

Luckily for us the weather was nice, no wind so it was not cold; and the city provide a huge parking space right off the freeway exist (Exit Lake St., make a right turn, the parking lot is right on the left. It closes at 4 PM so make sure to move your car out before that time). From there, walk under the bridge then you’ll reach the mountains, 3 minutes walking.

With Grandma Tuyet and Aunt Eliza who also love flowers.

First time we went here, William mostly sat in his stroller and refused to get out. But this time he refused to sit in the stroller; he enjoyed walking on the dirt road while eating his M&M chocolate. That’s what we want to see from him: enjoy the nature. The only thing we wish is that he’d listen and would walk with us, not running ahead or around without asking us so we ended up running after him because we don’t want to loose him in this huge crowd (I’ve never seen so many people coming to see the flowers like this before, way so crowded). Because we had to always pay close attention to him we did not have much time to take pictures but Tim managed to take some good pictures of us.

Whenever he’s in the open or huge space, he has the tendency to run off without waiting for us, and refuses to hold our hands; and our only choice at that time is to run after him. Telling him to stop doesn’t work!

We were taking pictures, and he just decided to run back to the yellow gate. Tim followed him. Then he continued his way to the ice cream truck. He did not ask for ice cream but he said Yes when Tim asked if he wanted one.

So Tim bought 2 ice cream: 1 minion lemon ice cream bar and 1 shave ice cup. William was so happy licking his Minion ice cream and followed us to to back to the flowers field.

Eating ice cream is the best in a sunny day

We came up to the yellow gate and he decided to sit on it to enjoy his ice cream. I thought he’d sit fine but as soon as I take my hands off him, he felt off as well as the ice cream bar. I guess I should have told him so that he’d hold on to the gate better. He cried but not because he was hurt: “I want my ice cream!”. We promised him we’d get a new ice cream on the way back. He stopped crying but did not look happy. Now he wanted to sit on the stroller, drinking coke and eating M&M chocolates.

The yellow gate. Going down is to the parking lot where the ice cream trucks are. Going up hills are to see the flowers.

So on our way back to the car, we stopped by the Ice Cream truck to get him another Minion bar as promised. As we were waiting in line, he tried to stand up from the stroller, and then the stroller lifted backward, and he felt again! This time he did not cry but he was shocked! so I held him in my hands and comfort him.

I felt so bad that my negligence caused him to fall 2 times. Both of these incidents can be totally avoided if I always have him next to me. Being active kid, he’d never sit still so I should have pay more attention even when he’s sitting down.

But overall the trip was fun, this time we went with Grandma Tuyet and aunt Eliza. The weather was nice, flowers were beautiful and most importantly we got to spend quality time with our loved ones.