Jennifer's 365 Project

We're back home and from our mini-trip up north and enjoying this beautiful warm weather! It's a lot warmer today than it was the last several days in the UP so we're enjoying soaking up the sunshine.

We spent several hours at Frederik Meijer Gardens.
 The large horse is always a hit with kids, I'm sure. And ours was no exception. 
 He was fascinated that there were horseshoes.
He also enjoyed some of the other sculptures in the park.

It's been awhile since we have been to Frederik Meijer Gardens, so we headed out this morning. It was humid, but not sunny or terribly hot, considering what the last several days have been like.
Quinn had a great time, although he certainly hit his limit at three hours (well, before then but...). He loved running everywhere, and the gardens are a great place for him to burn off a lot of energy.

It's been a few years since we've been to Frederik Meijer Gardens and quite a while since I've actually been anywhere outside. I've actually only been to the sculpture park and part of the children's area, so I wanted to take Quinn and see more of the gardens.
It's still the first week back to school for most kids so this was a perfect day to visit. The children's area wasn't too busy and the kids that were there were on the younger side.
I was really surprised at how much there was to the children's area. Aside from the water area there was a log cabin...
...And quite an elaborate tree house. I think we will definitely be coming back several times over the next few years.
They also have the sculpture from Northland Mall since that's now closed. I grew up going to that mall quite a bit and I loved this thing. I remember my mom yelling at me all the time not to climb it. So now I guess if I ever want to see it I can just go to the gardens.
After two hours of running around Quinn was doing so well we even went through the Japanese Gardens. It opened last year and I was curious to see what it looked like.
It is definitely not as kid friendly as the children's area, so we could only linger at certain areas briefly before the whirlwind of energy hurled a rock into a perfectly manicured area.
But all in all I really enjoyed it. It was pretty peaceful since there were only retirees out and about. And Quinn did really well for nearly three hours we were there. In fact, he napped for three hours after we left. That alone made the trip worth it!

It's been several years since I've been to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. I've been told several times over the years that their Christmas Tree displays for their Christmas and Holiday Traditions Around the World event are pretty nice to see. So since we both have the day off, we popped in to check things out.

The trees were pretty nice, and I was happy to see a Swedish tree, complete with Dala horses and a string of Swedish flags. The visit was a nice breakup in the middle of the day. I suppose we could have wandered a bit outside, but it was pretty windy and cold out, so we just toured in indoor portion of the gardens.

Today my parents came out to GR with my little brother and his girlfriend. We hiked over to Frederick Meijer Gardens to look at the flowers and sculptures.

If you're not familiar with the place you should look it up online and visit if you're in the area sometime. There are some activity areas for kids, and plenty of plants indoors and out to look at. In the outdoors is the sculpture park with large, and interesting, creations. I've only been there a few times but it seems like they're ever expanding.

All in all it was a good day - although at the beginning it was sprinkling a little bit. Here's a shot of a rose with some rain drops on it I ran across while walking around.

Thanks to Kati telling me I can backdate stuff, this now has the appropriate date associated with it.

This picture was taken in the butterfly exhibit at Frederick Meijer Gardens. Its larger then the one at the Detroit Zoo, but its seasonal only and has no snazzy hummingbirds.

You can see Amanda's hands in the pic as well. :)