Fun at the Desert Botanical Garden

We went to the Desert Botanical Garden on May 6th. Because this was National Public Garden Day,  we got free tickets online to go on this day. It was pretty hot, but we brought a lot of water and had fun looking at the different kinds of cacti and succulents. We picked Sareny up after lunch at school to have an educational time with us. The first time Keith and I visited here was, I think, in 2003 when Keith's grandma Carter came to stay with us for a couple of weeks. The second time I went was with my grandma and parents on Sareny's first birthday weekend. So it had been a while since we have visited, and I felt a little nostalgic looking at things I remembered seeing all those years before.
In the picture below, there were all these cacti that grew perpendicular to the ground. They looked kind of like snakes. Poor Sareny had sunscreen in her eye. Kind of hurts me just looking at her squinting.

I don't really know what this plant was, but it looked pretty cool. It was really tall with all these short little branches going up the sides.

Then we went to the butterfly exhibit. I think this was everyone's favorite part. There were butterflies everywhere.

You had to be careful where you walked, because the butterflies landed on the ground, too.

You weren't allowed to try to touch the butterflies, but that didn't stop Isaac from getting his face right up close to them.

Finley wanted to get a better look, too.

Then the kids could pretend to be butterflies and caterpillars.

Sareny took this picture of me and Keith.

Some cute kids.

Finley likes to help push the shopping carts, or the stroller. She is kind of in the way when she does, but it is pretty cute and sweet.

Sareny likes to take pictures, and kept asking if she could take another one of us. Behind me is a weird cactus that lookes kind of like intestines.

Isaac being silly. I love Finley in this picture. Right after I took it, she started copying Isaac's pose.

In addition to taking pictures, Sareny likes to run up to things, strike an odd pose, and tell me to take her picture.

Best friends.

We had to break out some snacks for the kids.

I love this picture of Daddy and his kids. And that is one bizarre cactus/tree thing they are standing in front of.

Mommy and her kids. Which I thought was an especially fitting picture, since this was two days before Mother's Day.

I loved this one too, so I had to put both of them up here. I think you can just feel the love in these pictures! Plus, most unusually, I look pretty okay in them.

Anther one of Sareny and Isaac. I think you can tell how hot it was that day from how red their faces are in this photo. It was over 100 degrees, which is not uncommon for this time of year. Today it is in the 60's/70's, which is uncommon.

A metallic sculpture that Sareny wanted to pose in front of.

And another picture of me and Keith that she wanted to take.

We had a lot of fun, despite the heat. Although we apparently took massive amounts of pictures, we were only there for less than two hours. Hopefully it won't be another six years before we venture back!