Red Butte Gardens

Today, I was going to take Gibson to Thanksgiving Point Gardens because it is $2 Tuesday. But he wanted to go to Red Butte Gardens instead. That was fine with me -less crowds! And it was nice - we basically had the place to ourselves!

I know Red Butte Gardens backwards and forwards and I took Gibson and his friend Brenna to all of my secret places. They loved it! This is Gibson sitting by the river that you get to using the hidden stairs. Then we went through the "tunnel of trees" and found this secret spot next to the river. There was a great waterfall here, too.

I love this pose on the moose statue!

Gibson and I by the pond.

I've never seen the ducks so aggressive before! They reminded me of the geese at Wheeler Farm!

And, of course, the water fountains in the Children's Garden were the highlight of the visit!

And no trip to a garden is complete without running down a huge hill!

How many pictures of tulips can you take? A LOT!!!

If you haven't guessed, we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point Gardens.

Believe it or not, I took pictures of things besides tulips....



Watch these videos and see if you can figure out what Gibson's favorite thing to do at Thanksgiving Point Gardens is.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

We love visiting the gardens at Thanksgiving Point and have been meaning to go for months now. The $2 Tuesday special was just what we needed to get our butts in gear and get down there! We had a great time. Everything looked so beautiful. And even though there were a lot of people, it wasn't bad because the gardens are SO big (however, I wouldn't recommend trying to go to the museum, etc. on $2 Tues - those were some lines!). We ended the day in the Children's Garden and Gibson and his friends had a ball playing in the water!

Brady and Gibson running down the BIG hill! There was another big hill and I think that Gibson probably ran/rolled/fell down the hills at least 50 times that day!
Brady and Gibson sitting in front of one of the small waterfalls.
Christen and Gibson in front of one of the BIG waterfalls!
Gibson playing in the fountain (and trying not to get splashed by the annoying "babies")!
As I said, we ended our day at the Children's Garden, where they have a huge water playground.We didn't bring any towels, so Gibson, Mason and Tyson dried off in the sun!

Quick Update

So... it's been a long time since I've posted anything. But, then again, it's been a long time since I've been home! I had ZERO internet, phone, cell phone, etc. access in Oregon - which was definitely nice in a way. Here's a little bit on what I've been doing since Gibson and I got home.

I could not believe how big my plants had gotten while I was gone! Look at the size of these Hibicus and the vincas (below - in the island). Wow!
We got to babysit Lukas (Courtney's little boy) yesterday! What a cutie! He is 2 1/2 months old and weights almost 16 pounds!

"Gardening in the Yard" or "Fun in the Sun"!

Look at these peonies!

Two sitting in my tool bag - what a big helper!

We are so excited! We finally "finished" our front yard. All of the major projects that we wanted to do in the front yard are finally complete. We removed all the major trees and stumps that needed to go. We put in the front island, put in the seating area, set up a light post and planted 3 new large trees. The whole project was finally completed last week with the addition of the new curbing! So Brady and I spent all weekend cleaning that up (not an easy task! - you have to remove the excess cement, build the beds back up with dirt and lay new mulch down). Now we just need to get the last backyard project completed (waterfall and dry riverbed) and the yard will be complete after 4+ years in the making!

I think our yard/garden is one of the reasons I love this time of year so much! I just absolutely love sitting outside and enjoying all the beautiful flowers and plants.

Favorite Rose in Bloom

My favorite rose, the Tropicana, has started to bloom! It has the most amazing colored-flowers: a deep coral orange color (I just wish I could smell them!).

My Birthday (and working in the yard)

I had such a wonderful birthday this year! I feel very privileged to have such thoughtful friends and family. Because of them, I got to spend my birthday doing some of my most favorite activities: shopping on Amazon, shopping at Express, buying plants at Valley Nursey and then working in my yard all day to plant them, seeing movies (Indiana Jones 4 and Narnia 2 - both 'okay') and eating out. I'm sure Courtney will appreciate this, but here's a picture of her, my mom, Gibson and I at my birthday lunch. Then I took some pictures of my yard after I had spent all day planting. I got a whole flat of annuals: I planted pansies in my front bed, vinca in my front island and petunias in the back bed. I also got 10 more perrenials for the front bed (I always think I'm done - but then I always manage to find room for more!) and another daylily for my daylily/peony flowerbed. As you can see, the peonies are about to open - and they're going to be beautiful (you can see the huge bleeding heart in that picture, too)! Also note how the snowball bush exploded this year! You can also see my new tree - my Eastern Redbud - in the front yard. I have known that's what I wanted to plant there for 4 years, but had to wait until we got the old tree stump removed. I cannot wait to see it bloom new year (beautiful pink flowers). I also planted some new shrubs around my red maple tree in the front island. So thanks to everybody who made my birthday wonderful!