The Huntington Library

Yesterday my parents invited us to the Huntington Library and remarkably... we had no plans! I threw a bunch food into a bag, and I mean pounds of food that would be carried on one shoulder, and we made the drive out to lovely Pasadena. One day, when my friend wins the lottery and buys me a house, I'm going to live in Pasadena as the city is filled with charm and houses that look like mansions to us beach people. 

I hadn't been to the Huntington Library in years and it only took me twenty minutes to realize I really needed a yearly membership to this immaculate garden "where they never have problems, at least very few". I pictured doing select schoolwork in the beauty of the gardens, peacefully walking through the manicured landscape with my inquisitive children, and ending the day in the Children's Garden, which is a wonder in itself. I texted Brad: What do you think of me buying a membership to the gardens? And then I added: Don't roll your eyes at me!

I have a thing for yearly passes. I not only enjoy museums on their monthly free day, but also seem to collect yearly passes at other local (or not so local) attractions. Brad didn't get back to me right away, I called him a while later when he didn't respond to my texts. When he had stopped laughing at me he asked, "Would you go?" I refrained from answering, "Are you kidding? I would go everyday!" At the end of the conversation he said I could go ahead and buy one as long as I used it and probably not everyday as the drive is thirty miles.

While walking through Desert Garden Simon chuckled mischievously and said he wanted to walk down this particular path. That is, of course, the intentions of most four year olds, right? To go against the natural flow of the family and insist upon their own wisdom?

Well, thanks to having #awesomeparents, my dad said he would walk the path, which Simon loved.

Nathan especially loves nature. His favorite phrase that day was, "Oh my!" and he said it in response to anything out of the ordinary, like helicopter seeds and oddly shaped cactus and intricately colored blossoms. He always remarks at the creativity of the Creator.

I spent hours feeding the children. Every time I turned around someone was asking me for something new. I handed out cheese, chicken, fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, answered they couldn't possibly be hungry any more, and where they insisted that they were very hungry. I was thankful they were relieving me of the pounds of food weighing unevenly on my shoulders, but for crying out loud, they ate through all five miles of the garden and all thirty miles of the drive back home!

My grandma is in town for a couple of weeks, which is a huge treat. The children enjoyed grabbing her hand and talking tadpoles.

We brought the children's nature journals for sketching.

Here the children watched ants and I heard something about a spider's abdomen. While it looks like Simon is cuddling with his sissy he was squeezing between the two all the while whining, "Sissy, I can't see!"

Alynna liked this bench and asked me to take a picture.

More sketching.

Alynna's rendition of the Chinese Gardens.

The children walked over five miles that day and even though Simon informed me a couple of times that his legs were sore or that he was all out of energy, he cried when we left the gardens and told me he wanted to live there. Just wait until she wins the lottery, Simon, and we can live down the street "where they never have troubles at least very few".