5 whole years, part two!

On the date of our actual anniversary, we decided to spend it together as a family.  We started with a breakfast picnic at the arboretum.  We've wanted to go to the arboretum for some time, and we still haven't seen that much of it, but we really did enjoy our time on the lawn outside of the Japanese Botanical Garden.

On our way to Seattle, we stopped at our favorite bakery - The French Bakery - to pick up some delicious treats.  Armed with our trusty picnic blanket (thanks Acostas!), a chocolate croissant, a Napoleon, and another tasty looking french pastry item (can't remember the name, but it was yummy) we started our picnic off right!  Mama brought a large cup of chilled 2% milk to go along with the meal.  Good thinking!

Xander also enjoyed his own milk, whole milk for him, and later kicked it with his trusty giraffe.  He has since started referring to this giraffe (aka raffie) fondly as "Ra Ra!"  SO CUTE!!

We packed up after enjoying our tasty treats (3 was one too many to share... phew!  Rich, albeit late,  breakfast!) and headed into the Japanese Botanical Garden at the Arboretum.  This is one of the beautiful views you get early on in the pamphlet guided tour we took.  (Remember to double click on images to get a larger and more detailed view.)

Later we came upon this tree that is growing right over the water almost parallel to the ground - it was so crazy!  This was one of our favorite things to see.

Here's Mama with Xander going over a bridge near the crazy tree.  Mama loves pathways and bridges... This place was for her fo sho!

There was a structure covered with foliage over the water - pretty amazing to see.  Dada really liked it so we got his photo with the greenery and the water.

At the opposite end of the park we took a panoramic shot... luckily Dada and Xander held still enough that it came out pretty well too :)

There were some fish and wildlife at the park along with the foliage.  When we first got in we saw a turtle, but it was so still Dada didn't think it was real.  Mama wasn't convinced because it was SO lifelike!  But the dang thing sat there frozen solid like a lawn ornament.  Later we read the pamphlet that explained that turtles can be seen sunbathing in the park.  Still, we had to get up super close to a different turtle later and watch for it to blink or move to know for sure.  After finding a blinking turtle, we were convinced they were all living beings!

There were a bunch of small fish and large koi in the water as well.  It was hard to get a good photo of them to do their beauty justice, but here is one that tries.

The lily pads were out of control!  So beautiful!

Dada and Xander, so peaceful!  Xander tolerated our garden visit quite well, we think he found it pretty soothing.  Good weather didn't hurt either.

In the spirit of the upcoming husky game that day, a photo of these little purple flowers was in order.  The flowers whispered to Mama as she photographed them... "Go Dawgs!"  Damned flowers - they didn't chant loud enough because we lost that game to LSU... but there was little that the Dawgs could do about that, let alone the flowers... 41-3... that's a rough loss!  Sorry flowers :(

Overall we had a great day though.  Happy Anniversary to us, for real!