I Miss My Camera!

I CANNOT get the hang of my mom's camera. Half of the pictures I took yesterday are awful and it was a perfectly overcast, picture-taking day! I dread what the pictures of Mark's wedding will look like -- granted there will be a professional photographer for them but I like to take a few -- plus there will be tons of family there!

Well at any rate, yesterday mom and I took the girls to Dow Gardens in Midland, Michigan. These are gardens that were originally part of the Dow estate and now they are open to the public and beautiful! I wasn't sure how many flowers we would see since we're at the end of the summer but I was wonderfully surprised. And not only were there flowers, there were rocks, trees, interesting architecture, winding paths, streams and ponds, sculpture, and a really wonderful children's garden.



The children's garden is where we spent most of our time of course. Not only did they have flowers, they had vegetables that you could pick with these fun dressed up scarecrows in the beds, and of course activities. The bubbles were Megan's favorite of course but she had a good time just picking up "leafies!" and "sticks!" and looking at the "big rocks!" We walked into an area where there were quite a few leaves on the ground and her hands were already full and you could see her brain working trying to figure out how to pick up more! Abby was wonderful of course and just rode along. I think if we lived here we would get annual passes, we enjoyed it that much! I really recommend it to anyone who is visiting the area. And apparently they have great things going on year round, even in the wintertime!I loved this bush with the eyes -- reminds me of Snuffleufigus (and I KNOW I butchered that spelling -- you know who I mean!)
Chasing bubbles -- typical Megan I have no pictures where she is actually looking at me. But I don't think I can blame her with so much to see!

Every plant in this garden started with a different letter of the alphabet . . . but I didn't have the time to search them all out.

This is just a sampling of the flowers. Something like this you can't duplicate on film (unless you're a lot better than I am!) but I enjoy trying.







Next week we're going to the zoo so I need to figure out this camera! Oh and as a side note, Abby is not taking to food very well. She makes the most gloriously hideous faces -- but surprisingly she really enjoyed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

Just kidding.