Botanic Gardens

How nice it was to visit the Chicago Botanic Gardens in the evening last night with my parents. It had been a strange day with weather, sprinkling on and off throughout the day, so we didn't know exactly what would be in store for us. But, it ended up being quite lovely.

There were no special events for the night, which meant that crowds of people were at a minimum. We saw several people taking engagement pictures along the way, but no weddings, no light show, no carillon bell performance, it was quite lovely.

At one point, Jed was looking with childish longing through the bushes at their little train park. Not wanting to disappoint, my parents splurged and we all got to go inside to see the train park in action. It actually was really cool. There were all of these little areas set up to look like famous places across America. And, in the mean time, there were MANY trains traveling to and around all of the destinations within the little train park.

There was the Hollywood sign, Pike Place Market (complete with an erupting Mt. St. Helen in the background), Mt. Rushmore, the White House, etc. Ellie loved to watch the trains go around and she would try to follow them with her eyes. She was not so interested in watching Mt. St. Helen erupt as we all were, but she humored us none the less.



My mom and I found this plant whose "street name" was Pony Hair. Immediately, we began to play with it as though it was real hair - me stroking it - her braiding it. We also discovered that if we squatted underneath it, we looked like rock stars. Who knew?

Ellie conked out for most of our journey around the grounds. What a life to get to be pushed around by a stroller without a care in the world!

And, of course, before Ellie went to sleep, we had to get a couple of posed pictures of her with the summer foliage.

In front of potted plants...


With Gramma and Grandpa by the fountains...