Japanese Garden
It's been a few years since I have visited the
Missouri Botanical Garden, and I don't think I've ever seen it so beautiful. Maybe it was all the Niki sculptures or the Chihuly glass works, whatever the case, it was a beautiful day in the garden.
Scattered throughout the garden were beautiful
Niki mosaic sculptures. I have never seen such stunning mosaics. They added such an incredible element to our garden walk. Below are a few pictures that don't even come close to capturing the artistic beauty of the sculptures.
If you look closely enough you can see the kids' arms sticking out of the teeth.
The fist stop on the kids' list was the maze in the Victorian Gardens. They had a fun time trying to find their way out. If Amy wouldn't have given them some clues, they might have been stuck in there all day. 
Here are just a sprinkling of the flowers that we spotted along our walk.
Aside from the pretty irises, peonies, and Niki sculptures, we also enjoyed the Dale Chihuly glass works. These incredibly colorful pieces of art were breathtaking. I can't even imagine how difficult it must be to assemble some of these pieces. Below are some pictures and here you can watch a short video of the artist and his exhibition at the Missouri Botanical Garden..
After our fantastic morning at the botanical gardens, we headed to the St. Louis Zoo. I don't know what we were thinking when planned to visit two attractions that required lots and lots of walking in one day. But it all worked out very well because the weather was moderate, not too hot and humid, and it was wonderful to be outside.
Although I have a ton of zoo pictures, some of which the boys took, I decided not to bore you with those. Except for a couple of pictures of the kids with a cobra. Not a real cobra a cobra statue. These pictures are memorable because the cobra was the cause of the first melt down of the trip. I don't know exactly what happened but it involved Ethan and taking his picture. In fact we had to travel back to the cobra just to take another picture of Ethan and the cobra. Did I mention that it was just a STATUE! 
Picture One - Notice that Ethan is hiding behind Mac. He's mad and hiding.
Picture Two - if you know Ethan, his face says it all. He's now in the picture but still mad.
Picture three - Ethan's starting to recover from his melt-down and finally takes a "happy" picture. You can tell by Grayson's expression that he's just about at his limit of taking pictures with the stupid cobra.
Aside from the little cobra incident, it was a very fun day. And the good thing about the St. Louis Zoo is that it's free! So you won't feel bad if you're too tired to walk another inch and just want to go home, even though you haven't seen it all.
Last night we attended my niece's dance recital. She looked adorable in her feathery pink costume. Her performance was darling and comical at the same time. One of the little girls lost her tap shoe early on and wasn't sure what to do with it. Although I might be biased, I definitely think Olivia was the best dancer of the group.
Yes the evening did bring back memories of the 9 plus years that I spent taking tap and ballet lessons as a child, and all the recitals and competitions. However, the most nostalgic part was that the recital was preformed in my former high school auditorium.
It felt strange returning to my old high school alma mater, especially after being absent for 20 some years. It looked mostly the same, unchanged by the thousands of students that came after me. The auditorium, the cafeteria, the football field, were all still there, taking me back in time, and making me feel as though I was 16 again. 
Grayson, Ethan, Mac, Louis, Clark and Seaman the Dog
