Missouri Botanical Garden

The day after my birthday my mom, Chandra and I went to the Botanical Gardens with my sisters Kristin and Sharon and Sharon's kids. When we got there stop number one was to take a picture around the birthday cake outside the entrance. This year is the 250^th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis, so to honor the founding there are 250 birthday cakes scattered around the city uniquely painted by different artists to represent the location they are at.

It was awfully breezy, as you can tell by my windblown hair!

Inside the entrance there was this cool orchid made out of Legos (there is a special Lego exhibit going on right now). I also had to get a picture of this blown glass thing that hangs from the ceiling.

Matt and Sarah:

The first thing we came to when we went out into the gardens was this fountain where some of the kids stopped to soak their feet. It was hot and humid and I was mighty envious that I couldn't join in because it looked very refreshing! ;)

Above is the climatatron where most of the Lego creations were. We didn't pay to go in, but I'm sure it would've been really neat. Below is a Lego rototiller:

Then we went to go take some pictures by the reflecting pool. I think this is one of my favorite spots at the Botanical Garden. It makes for a great photo op.

This picture is from 2010. Matt was just a few months  and Emily that hadn't even been born!

Another fountain where the kids stopped to cool off:

Chandra by the entrance to the Japanese gardens, and a picture of all of us big girls:

Some of the beautiful flowers and foliage:

More pictures in the Japanese garden:

Above the kids stopped to feed the koi fish before we left. The kids were good sports and walked a long time in the heat without much complaining so we went to Cold Stone afterwards for ice cream.