UCSC Arboretum

I have never been to an arboretum before. In my mind I pictured it being a fancy, indoor greenhouse. While I was excited to go I was a little worried about keeping the boys happy and under control. Well, to my pleasant surprise it was all outdoors, the boys could run and be noisy, yay! It was also much larger than I had anticipated. There were miles of trails to wander and explore! They boys had fun looking for birds, especially hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, lizards, spiders and snakes. They also really enjoyed looking at all the different flowers and trees. I, of course, enjoyed getting to take pictures of all the fun things we saw.

Here are some examples of the flowers:

And the trees:
And here are the boys exploring and enjoying it all!
Here is a really cool, and very large spiderweb we found. Austin also got to see a spider catch and eat a bug. He was fascinated by it!
My favorite part was the scent garden, beautiful in scent and color!
Afterwards we decided to continue our adventures and try out a park we had never been to before. We lucked out with the park we picked. It had a big, beautiful pond. We took a walk all the way around and saw ducks, geese, turtles, tadpoles, giant fish and huge dragonflies! It is a joy to me to see the boys so interested in and appreciative of the nature around them.