Entries Tagged 'arboretum' ↓

They still fit! They tried to convince me I could fit in there with them but I decided that sounded uncomfortable.

The trees that light up when you hug them.

Looking at the fire pit

The lights change color when you press buttons like the one Ivan is pressing.

Back home after hot cocoa to exchange presents.

Stripey Pumpkin

Troll named Rocky Baldur

Troll named Furry Ema

Even Ivan is looking at the camera in this one. SCORE!

Troll named Guardian Joe

On the Troll Trail with Grandma Liz

We found the Troll Secret Hideout

Inside the shelter. Liz described the shelter as herringbone patterned.

On the Trolls’ campfire

Playing the trolls’ drum

The trolls have a giant mancala game.

On the trail again

Taffy Apples

Signs say you cannot climb the trolls, but that troll hugging is appropriate.

Picking a troll’s nose

Ivan took this photo of Ezri and I with a troll.

Here’s Ezri leaning on a troll spear.

Guess what? Troll butt!

Kids on the troll trail.

And back in 2009. . . same acorn and smaller Ezri.

The last few years we’ve made it while the daffodils were in full bloom, but this year we went on a rainy, cold day when they were past their prime.

We still had lots of fun chasing ducks and “sending secret messages” by dropping sticks and leaves on one side of the path and collecting them on the other side after they’d washed through a corrugated drainage pipe.

Certainly was duck weather today.

We found a butterfly.

Ezri wanted her photo taken with it. It’s in there. Somewhere.

At the tadpole pond, scooping up some wriggly baby frogs.

The kids arranged leaves, nuts, sticks, and pinecones. In the end the home had a table, a fireplace,a two beds, and assorted things “just to pretty it up.”

The arboretum hosts a trail of scarecrows decorated by local school and scout groups. We walked the scarecrow trail, got caramel apples, played in the hedge maze, saw the glass pumpkin patch and hiked back to the car.

Meghan gave piggyback rides. This is just one thing that makes her awesome.

They go together like mustard and ketchup.

This is Ivan with the bag of kettle corn that gave us the strength to get back to parking lot P4.

This scarecrow was all ‘stache. Here’s the crew trying to make it look like they have mustaches. It didn’t really work, but I love the Dada of the pink pole with mustaches as scarecrow.

Ezri got the camera while in the backseat and takes a car photo on the ride home.

This scarecrow is straight out of Gaiman’s Coraline. She is the other mother.

Ivan loved running from scarecrow to scarecrow proudly proclaiming, “There’s a other one! There’s a other one!”
Elsa scarecrow with ice palace.

It was grey with occasional flashes of blue sky, but it did not rain on us. Here’s the pretty that the trees were doing.

Ezri is posing as an Ezri statue.

This is the leaf fight at Blau house after our adventure.

The caramel apple bar where you get to pick your apple color (red or green) and your toppings (sprinkles, m&ms, toffee, snickers) is a highlight. YUM!

A couple quotable moments from the trip included the moment when I was saying you could only marry one person. Meghan pointed out that you could marry only one person at time. I said, for example, that if your husband died you might remarry.
Ezri said to Meghan, “So, if you marry someone and he’s 99 and then he has a birthday and then he dies. Then you could marry someone else.”
Meghan said, “Yes, but I’d marry someone a little younger than 99.”
Ezri asked, “Like 90?”

Ivan’s best quote was about the scarecrow who had a hammock made for him and was lying down and roasting s’mores. When I said we should go have a look at him, Ivan said, “No, that one’s already dead. Let’s go see the other one.”