A Lovely Visit to the Botanical Garden

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.
I will be glad and rejoice in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

Psalm 9:1&2

On Thursday we met Chris at the Botanical Garden for lunch. It was a GORGEOUS day! We also saw our friends Laurie and Brett there too, which was a nice surprise :). After Chris left to go back to work, we explored the Children’s Garden and Butterfly House a bit before heading home.

Julia sticks her tongue out for almost every photo these days! Of course Gabe has to imitate her for laughs!

The Circle of Life for a Monarch Butterfly!

Check out the photo below, do you see the “before and after” of the monarch butterfly? I thought it was so neat to see both forms sharing the same leaf!!

We truly experienced how amazing God’s creation is!

The fall foliage behind this fountain looked so beautiful! I hope we can fit in lots of visits to the Botanical Gardens this autumn :).

Breakfast with the Butterflies

Gabe and I didn’t let stormy weather stop us from enjoying the butterfly release party at the botanical gardens on Saturday.

We were looking forward to a yummy breakfast with butterfly shaped pancakes like they had last year, but they didn’t have any this time. Not to be a “Negative Nellie”, but it seems that they increased the price and lowered the quality of the butterfly release party compared to last year. Here’s a link to the photos and video from last year’s fun party: Butterfly Celebration 2009. This year they only had one craft, no games and we paid $16 for the two of us to eat store-bought food with a few grapes and strawberries on the side.

What really matters to me is that Gabe had a good time, and he did (as always) – so that’s great! He enjoyed the craft and was very interested in the large butterfly they gave him. Here’s a video of him releasing it:

The butterfly landed nearby after being released, so Gabe was able to see it up close and gently touch it some more. He even posed for a close-up photo for me:

More July Photos to Share

I took Emma and Gabe to the gardens one morning recently where we spent most of our time in the children’s garden and the butterfly house. As we were leaving, they both really wanted to go see the amphitheater by the nature center (which never would have occurred to me to visit on a day when there was no event going on). Emma had fun posing on the stage, then they both ran to the top of the grassy hill and celebrated being so high up. I love how kids can teach us to find joy off the beaten path :).

Butterfly Release Video and More

On Wednesday morning Gabe was determined to go to the Botanical Garden! He kept asking over and over if we could go. I wasn’t sure about it at first because I have been sick with a cold for over a week now – add that to the heat and my ever-growing pregnant belly, and it sounded like an exhausting trip to me. But he was so excited, so I decided to just go for it. Luckily, when we got there I remembered about the free shuttle rides – what a blessing! A nice man named Dan drove us around the gardens, pointing out interesting facts and stopping wherever we wanted so we could get out and look around. Since he is a Master Gardener, I took the opportunity to ask him lots of gardening questions (in case we ever decide to do something with our landscaping ha ha). Here’s a photo of Gabe in the cart with Dan.

When we got to the children’s garden, we said goodbye to Dan and did the rest of the trip on our own. Gabe played and enjoyed the water features, while I sat on a shady bench :). We also went inside the nature center, where Gabe got to pet a turtle and he even got to release a butterfly! I didn’t catch a good photo this time, but that reminded me that I never shared any of the photos from the butterfly release party earlier this year…

To celebrate the opening of the butterfly house, they had a pancake breakfast for the kids and lots of fun games and activities for them to do, plus they each got to release a butterfly! Here’s a video of Gabe releasing a Butterfly that day:

Gabe Releases a Butterfly (4.25.09)

Here are some more photos from the Breakfast with the Butterflies Celebration:

The last photo is actually from another visit to the garden to see the Big Bugs art installation they have had up this summer – very cool!  I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

Huntsville Botanical Gardens Photo Gallery

Ready for some more photos from the gardens? There were so many to share from our April 4th visit, that I decided to just create a little photo gallery for your viewing pleasure :). You can click on the photos to see a larger version. Enjoy!