botanical

Living in this area feels like such a charm, especially this time of year and despite the traffic and crowds. When we hit the National Botanical Garden Season's Greetings train and natural sculptures exhibit at just the right time on Sunday - easy free parking, no line and not too many people - I was expecting little choo choos looping between pretty plants. But boy oh boy, it is so much cooler with the adorable elaborate little houses made out of twigs and leaves.  They had cute names like critter condo, peacock palace, giraffe garage, porcupine place, monkey mansion, many fairy flats, and many many more. They even had some inside scenes that were housed in this little tunnel right at Aiden's level.  There were bridges overhead with trains running and waterfalls near the loopy track. Then the historic scale models of homes and monuments was just as impressive. The rest of the garden had festive decorations with natural ornaments. There was bright sun warming up the cool day, so we scurried across the street to the Capitol building Xmas tree. Aiden's sun glasses and KC's little fuzzy suit kicky legs were making a bunch of tourists giggle and take their picture. The kids were almost as much of an attraction as the Peep car. J asked Aiden what law he thought was most important on the capitol steps and he said his law was to always go potty in the potty.  Here are some snaps from my iphone camera, some with this new kitschy little fisheye lens J got me as an early xmas present.