Christmas Lights at the Botanical Gardens

Yeah yeah, I know a blog is supposed to be me writing and not mostly pictures but too bad. I am not that interesting so the pictures are filler. We went to the botanical gardens tonight to see the River of Lights that they have. It cost $7 per adult and our kids were free. First thing we did was buy hot chocolate because we still haven't found our thermos. We had so much fun. There were a LOT of people there. A LOT. The line to get into the parking lot was at least a mile down the street in both directions. While we were in line we saw this little girl who was about 3 years old in her stroller and her parents had her so bundled up that she couldn't see (her hat kept falling over her eyes) and she couldn't move her legs or arms because she had so many layers and blankets shoved in around her. I wanted to take a picture but it would have been rude.

Here is Lucas keeping his hands warm on his hot cocoa and taking a sip.



This dinosaur was Lucas's favorite. The mouth moved open and closed.

Here are father and son admiring the dinosaur.

Here is a botanical arrangement.

Here was my favorite, a giant centipede. This was at least 7 feet long.

My second favorite, a vinegaroon. By the way all of these are blurry because shooting lights at night without a tripod is difficult.

A spider with a turtle behind it.

These elephants "moved" and Lucas loved it.

A prairie dog.

A scorpion

This was a sinking submarine and in the background under the purple canopy was a very talented band who were playing Christmas music. You could hear them as you walked through the gardens. Also there were carolers in a couple places who were singing. They were really good too.

I finally found my way down to the centipede and had AJ take my picture. Nick LOVED the lights and refused to go to sleep. We didn't take the double stroller because it would have been too hard to maneuver with all the people around. As it was we should have put Lucas into the kid backpack to carry him around.

These butterflies were hung in a tree and they were all different colors. . . very cool. I inadvertently walked right up to the tree to get this picture and interrupted about 6 different people who were standing back with their cameras trying to capture the entire tree in their shot. Opps.

A coyote.

It looks like either a Yucca or a Sotol. It think Yucca. I heard someone else say Sotol. And there is a roadrunner in the front.

A giant stained glass turtle. This thing was a big as me or bigger.

A preying mantis.

There was a forest of these sunflowers and I made AJ stand under one so you could get an idea of size.

This was a honey bee hive. It came up to my shoulders.