Day 15 | Botanic Garden or Bust

United State Botanic Garden adventures.

Not every day is a dream.*

We set out this morning to have a lovely walk down to the Mall and meet some friends at the United States Botanic Garden.  As you can see from the photo collage, we had a good time and saw a lot of fun things.  However, the story behind the photos is a bit different.  Just a few of the details from our excursion:

1. We fought thousands (felt like millions) of people, ie tourists, on our walk to and from the Garden.  There was a police memorial going on at the Capitol and apparently every high school student group chose today to be wandering around the Hill.  Try navigating a double stroller and fiesty toddler through all that.  Not the most fun I've had.

2. Within five minutes of going inside, Chase got his t-shirt wet (and by wet, I mean a splash of water hit his left sleeve) when he was watering the flowers and he immediately needed his shirt removed.  He walked around the rest of the day wearing an "It's my birthday" tee (that he was wearing underneath) and, for those of you not certain, it is not his birthday.  For the record, the other little kiddos we were with got soaking wet and had no complaints.

3. We got kicked out of two areas of the garden.  One was a non-functioning fountain (pictured above) which would have been the best toddler play area ever.  Nope.  Two was a small secluded garden that was perfect for keeping the toddlers confined.  Would have been perfect, that is, except for the terribly cranky USBG worker that had no patience for the kids.  It's a public garden, for heaven's sake, how can you expect two year olds to not try to touch large blue balls in the middle of the plantings?  So much for teaching kids about plants.  And I swear they weren't actually causing any trouble!  Did I mention that as we were getting kicked out of these two places, Robbe was screaming because he was starving and Chase took the moves equally as well?

4. One of Chase's friends took a digger right before we were leaving and got a big goose egg on her forehead.  The perfect ending.

After all that, we did have a nice time.  I was glad to get out of the house and take advantage of our proximity to the Mall since we'll be leaving here soon.  It was fun chatting with the other moms and hearing Chase's giggles (although few and far between).  It was a lovely day with a nice breeze and comfortable temps.  And now both boys are sleeping and my blood pressure is finally evening out.  See?  I can see the bright side.

*Side note: This phrase, "Not every day is a dream", will begin the posts that don't have a particularly rosey tone.  If you're not interested in hearing me vent, feel free to skip these days.  :)