Since today is rainy and cold, and we won't be doing anything "fun" because we've got to prepare our talks for speaking in sacrament meeting tomorrow (yuck!), I decided to blog about last Saturday instead.
One of our favorite places to explore this time of year is the rhododendron garden at Hendricks Park. We wanted to go early in the morning -- to get that cool clear morning light for our photos, hoping there wouldn't be very many people there yet, which helps with the bird watching too. We had a great time -- it was everything we wanted.
So here's a bunch of pictures of the lovely rhodies:
This one was in the shadows, so the colors looks especially deep and vibrant.
I have a better zoom on my camera now, so I can take "close-ups" of the flowers from further back (I can stay on the path instead of trampling through the planting beds, which they REALLY don't want people doing!).
I loved seeing the rhodies peeking out from among the ferns. The garden is famous for its rhododendrons, but there are lots of other types of plants there too, including tons of interesting ferns.
Always the "boy scout," Clay is prepared with his fanny pack carrying water bottles for each of us, and other "important" supplies.
There were some pretty poppies. I like looking straight down on them from above.
Here are a couple of pictures Clay took of other types of flowers in the garden.
Hendricks Park is on top of the hills overlooking Eugene. Here is a view of downtown.
After spending some time in the park, we went to Danica's last soccer game of this session. These two teams seemed pretty evenly-matched, and it was a fun game to watch.
Danica's kindergarten teacher, "Miss Jane," came to watch the game (there's also another little girl from her class on Danica's team). I thought that was very kind of her to take the time and effort to support her students in their activities. Aren't teachers great!!!
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My, what a talented daughter I have. Melissa has been very "crafty" lately. In addition to the cute things she's been working on that you can see on her blog, she surprised me with an adorable Mother's Day gift -- a sock monkey. (I have admired them in the stores, but had resisted the temptation so far). Mine is the striped one. "Polkie" (the polka-dot one) is Danica's. I haven't found the perfect name for mine yet.
And what's even cuter than two monkeys? Why, three monkeys, of course! Just kidding!! -- I'm not really calling my adorable granddaughter a "monkey". Danica wanted to be in the picture too. Notice how well her outfit matches the monkeys -- was that on purpose?.
Danica loves working in the garden with her grandpa. She was in charge of planting the marigolds this year. The one thing I insist on having in the garden every year is marigolds. Clay chooses the rest of whatever gets planted.
She did a great job of planting the flowers. She wasn't bothered at all by the excessive amount of worms we have in our garden. She enjoyed the worm "family" she found, and had very elaborate descriptions of the great big daddy worm, the medium-sized mama worm, and the itty-bitty baby worm, and the exciting life they were leading. She put them (along with a bunch of soil and "food") in a little bug habitat she has, which Melissa has decreed must stay at our house. They were "freed" a couple of days later.
And of course, if we're talking about cute, we can't leave Mira out of this post. So here's a picture of her from a recent trip to the grocery store -- gotta get her started early on smart shopping! She loves being able to sit up in the cart and see what's going on.
Seriously cute!
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