Monday, April 20, 2009

Butterflies and being shutter shy

We finally made our trip to see the butterflies at the Desert Botanical Garden on Saturday morning. Our previous attempt got stopped cold when I checked the web site before leaving and found "Reservations required to enter the garden." I guess there has been a great deal of excitement because of the Chihuly glass exhibit amongst the plants, so new rules. As all the grandchildren were already gathered, we went to the bird store instead and listened to those noisy macaws, silent grays, and cooing lovebirds. Then we went to the Easter Pageant at the temple.

Sadie wore her flower dress in hopes of attracting butterflies. We set free our last group of painted lady butterflies before leaving the house. Heather had covered herself in flowers hoping to attract a butterfly, which she did! One was so attracted it became a hitchhiker riding all the way with us in the car and making a somewhat shaky get away in the parking lot of the gardens after we finally found a parking spot.

Now confident in her butterfly attracting ways, Heather chose to disregard the "Do not touch the butterflies" sign. The docent also required that she relinquish grandma's flowers which she had brought with her before entering the Butterfly Pavilion.

Andrew had arrived home from California so joined us on our outing. I think his boys had missed him! I was lucky to get a shot with every one's eyes showing (well, maybe not Andrew's:) Their photog mom has made them shutter shy!

After butterflies, we stopped for a picture with a glass sculpture on our way back to the entrance. Toby wasn't too sure about the butterflies and held grandpa's hand tightly in the pavilion. Sadie loved the butterflies, but it not so sure about the glass. I really think that she had just run out of steam and it was starting to get pretty hot.

TJ is always a good sport to go along. He told me that the only plant he likes is the Venus fly trap!

Smart Heather knew how to beat the heat! Raymond tried to find a bit a shade, too, but the umbrella was a bit small.

We did a pretty good job of keeping track of everyone, something about an adult in front and another in back of the group.

The front of the group found a shady bench and luckily grandma had a drink of water for everyone.

Grandpa's lap always makes Sadie feel better. A stop at McDonalds on the way home made everyone feel better.

Ruby found some glass plants on the way out. Desert plants and glass - who knew it would be such an attraction.

2 comments:

Susan said...

Thanks for taking the kids - they had lots of fun. I'm bummed that Heather couldn't wear all the flowers in her hair - she looked so cute! Hopefully, the kids weren't too much of a handful.

Vagabond Mother said...

Okay, I think my boys are only mildly less photogenic than the rest of the grandchildren. . .

Thanks again for a great outing.