A trip to the Botanical Gardens! And then another!

Thursday afternoon called for a complete change of scenery, for my sake and Riley's, so we grabbed some bread that was less-than-fresh and headed to the Botanical Gardens to feed their enormous Koi and turtles.

First stop, of course, was to check on the tadpoles to see weather they'd sprouted any legs yet, which they haven't, but they're getting big. While Riley was peering at them I went to answer my phone and discovered that Robbie was coming in from out of town a day early! Hooray! While he and I were chatting I heard a SPLASH! and then 'Hmmm...' and I knew exactly what I'd see when I looked. Yup, Riley had taken a misstep and plopped feet first right in the little shallow pond. Dang.

I was initially annoyed and at first I was all about leaving, given that I didn't have any other clothes for him. We'd gathered our stuff and walked almost to the gate of the Japanese Garden and I was having to pull him along, but he didn't care a bit that he was wet and really wanted to stay. I took a moment to check myself and realized that I was actually being pretty unreasonable, and if he rode home dripping wet versus somewhat damp it really made no difference at all, so we stayed for a while and enjoyed the beautiful evening.

In addition to other things, he's teaching me some pretty good lessons in flexibility and recognizing when I need to just stop and say I'm sorry.

Hello there big tadpoles!



Hi Dad! Yeah, just looking at the tadpoles...

It was an accident...

But Mom, why are you getting all freaky about my wet clothes!?
Chill out already.



I shall use this very large leaf as my umbrella at the water sculpture.
(Because clearly he's concerned about getting wet, right?)

So then, the next day, our friends Michelle and Isabelle asked us to join them for some play time, and we decided that the ample shade at the Botanical Gardens was just what we needed, so we headed right back again.

Riley and Isabelle chose to play in the 'magic' bamboo forest, where a small creek runs, and thankfully Michelle and I had brought both of them a change of clothes. They really enjoyed that water! :-)

We're sitting in cool, clear water!

Sometimes there's just nothing to do but get out the camera.
Hello, Mister Mudpie! ;-)