Dallas Arboretum; Dallas Blooms 2013

On Monday, April 1st, we went to The Dallas Arboretum as a family. Seth had that Monday off because he was given a choice between having Good Friday off or the Monday after Easter and he chose Monday. Given that we host so many things over Easter weekend, I was thrilled with his choice. It would give us a chance to reconnect after all the busy-ness. The fact that I got a migraine Sunday afternoon and through the night made the situation all the better because I wasn't "throwing away" the last bit of weekend we had together as a family. 

We were able to get there first thing in the morning and the weather couldn't have been more perfect! Austin walked while Graham rode in the stroller. We got lots of great photos and had a really great time together. The Dallas Blooms was in its last week and we got to do some extra neat things like color and pet animals which are not normally a part of the Arboretum's offerings. 

Here are some of our pictures from our very fun day:

Rockin his new shades he got for Easter!
(I'm not sure how or when, but we got this huge smudge and it ruined most of Easter pictures and Arboretum pictures. The following are the best possible ones.)

I asked him to go up to the flowers. And he just walked up and stood there looking down at them. TOO funny.

I love the look of concentration Seth caught here!

I had bought this shirt without a specific purpose, but thought it was too colorful not to use for some special occasion at some time. And the arboretum trip was perfect. Thanks to Seth for pulling it out!

He loves to just run and run on the open grassy spaces. 

He was so tickled, it was like he'd never seen water before! 

Someday, when I get rich, I want an infinity pool. Ok? Ok.

More grassy spaces to run through. I love the effect these little trees gave the shot.

I don't know where he learned to do this, but he puts crayons behind his ear every single time we color! 

He took off running down the grassy slope and Seth had to take off full-speed to catch up with him, all the way at the end. We had no idea he'd just run right past the animals/people/activity.

I'm not sure about greener, but apparently it's tastier on the other side. 

His feet have come off the ground here, he was so excited. I think it was bunnies inside.

More grassy spaces! 

He stood here forever just letting the water hit him.

And then he was a little upset to realize he had gotten wet in the process.

Without prompting, he just walked up and plopped down in this plant. ! 

And stayed long enough for me to get a photo! 

I thought "Oh, how sweet, he's posing by holding a tulip." 

And thanks to the DSLR, I can show you what happened next. He went ALL BOY.

!

Poor Flower. 

This was new since we'd last been. A huge slide! 

It's hard to see here, but the water gets over 6 inches deep, so it's like shin-deep for him.

I got about 100 photos of him playing with the water. He was soaked.

I loved the little wet foot marks he was leaving behind. 

Who wouldn't want a picture of their Big and Middle Mans walking down this alley of trees!?

Kids would come up and throw money in and Austin would take it out. ! 

Sweet Brother was asleep in the stroller most of the morning.

Anne Marie is a little famous (at least to me) for taking really great pictures of flowers and I kept thinking of her while I was there. I attempted to take some that she would be proud of. Here they are: 

I think this one is my favorite.

This one especially made me think of AM--a picture she'd take.

(We have a family membership thanks to Anne Marie and Mike who gave us the membership for the boys' birthdays last fall. THANK YOU!!!)