Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens

Having no power at home led to a mini vacation at my parent's house in Richmond.  On July 4th we went to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens with my brother and his family.  The kids were happy to see their cousins and had fun exploring a new area. I was impressed by the beauty of the gardens and how wonderfully the Children's Gardens were set up to inspire creativity and play.

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead! 

Waiting to see our cousins! This was my attempt at a nice picture together of the two of them- fail! 

They boys wanted to hold hands as they walked along. 

Trey's cousins helped him since they knew the way around.

In the Children's Gardens.  They had these neat huts with primitive tools and household items.  Trey is sweeping and Charlotte is playing with a dried corn cob. 

We didn't bring the stroller with us and figured Charlotte could just walk.  She walked without getting tired the whole time, only she always didn't want to go where we were going!

This area had a bunch of branches on the ground just for climbing.  Charlotte loves to climb! She also spent a lot of time standing up on the stump behind her.

There was also a huge tree for the kids to climb.  Trey was so brave to climb all by himself! This was just before he slipped and fell under the tree :)

Trey and Chandler looking out the window in the tree house.

Trey LOVED the sandbox and did not want to leave it.  I think he would have had fun digging all day.  He just saw this picture on my computer and said, "That's me digging in the desert with my friends Jacob and Chandler."

Charlotte's first time in a sand box.

She's no so sure, so Chandler brings her a shovel.

She starts to dig with the shovel....

and then decides the sandbox is not for her.

We ended the day with the water area.  There were a lot of kids and Trey and Charlotte were just trying to figure out what all these sprinkler things were!

Charlotte cracks me up here.  She is watching the other kids. She wasn't super excited about the water but she enjoyed seeing all the other kids around. And she looked really cute in her bathing suit :)