We spent the afternoon and evening on Tuesday at the Meijer Gardens. This day trip is a summer tradition for us. The boys love it there! They love the children's garden, going into the huge greenhouse and playing i-spy, the cactus's, the "man-eating" plants and they are even beginning to be fans of the sculptures on the sculpture tour. I was surprised that they even remembered their favorites from last year. It is always an enjoyable day for us.
We were surprised that afternoon with a pop up thunderstorm, but it worked out great. When it started raining, everyone left. When the sun came back out about a half hour later, we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. While it rained we just went back into the greenhouse and looked for insects in the pitcher plants. They are Spencer's favorites. We also checked out the Degas display and the kids tried to replicate the dancer poses. That took up a lot of the rain time. I also thought for a second we might get arrested because Spencer set off an alarm by trying to "look" at a sculpture on display with his hands. Oops!
Hailey was not herself for a big part of the day. She was crying non-stop and was constantly wanting to be held. I was encouraging her to play in the water and sand - her favorite things - but she wanted none of it. She did not want to walk at all. Finally after taking her shoes off the crying began to subside and she started to venture off walking a little bit but was very leery of putting weight on her feet. I started to remember that she had been fussing a bit when I put her shoes on before we left, but then she was fine and laughing in the car on the way. I started to freak out a little that I had crushed, bent or broken her toe in her shoe. We kept an eye on her and she eventually started walking and acting normally. She is still a little weird seeming when I try to put shoes on her. I wish she could tell me what happened.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our day at the gardens. By the way, before we left I put a new xD card in my camera since I haven't backed up the pictures on my other full one anywhere. This was a smaller card that only would hold about 40 pictures. I was worried before we left that I wouldn't have enough space on that card. 40 pictures! In old fashion film that is almost two rolls for a couple of hours. I did use them all up and then some - I had to delete while I was there (which I hate to do) and change my picture resolution to a lower setting to get more shots. I am such a digital photographer - I can't believe I never wanted to switch over from film. That is the only drawback to digital in my case - I take way too many pictures!
Spencer telling us that the fish he sees is "this big"! This pond is full of big ol' goldfish. I don't know how to spell their Japanese name.
Evan's favorite sculpture - the giant dinosaur eggs.
I don't know what they were doing. Trying to rip apart the metal in the sculpture. 
Spencer is the king of the world.
Hailey (finally herself )playing in the fountain.
2 comments:
I have never been to the gardens, other than for the butterflies. I so want to go now. My kids would totally dig the eggs, nest, etc! Sounds like a great tradition.
Poor little Hay's toes.
What a fun day you all had on that nice hot day!! Cute pics of the kids.
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