Friday Field Trip: Huntington Library

The ladies in my ward/stake do what they have called Friday Field Trips during the summer. Brilliant idea. A mom "hosts" a Friday, which means choosing a cool place to share with everyone else and providing the details. This past Friday we went to the Huntington Library in Pasadena. The drive north of downtown was beautiful! And Pasadena itself has a nice feel to it. I had read online that the library is huge...but holy cow...it really IS huge! Botanical gardens, art museums, rose gardens, observatory, and even a children's garden with water features for the kiddos to play in. Parking is free, admission is $15/adult and children under 3 are free. 

 Olivia and I first visited the Japanese and Chinese gardens (my favorites by the way), the rose gardens, and the observatory before heading over to the children's garden. We met up with some of the other moms and kiddos there - and quite quickly Olivia became fascinated with one of the fountains. She played in it for 20 minutes at least. She was NOT interested in leaving it to check out the other features in the garden. After some serious coaxing, we did manage to check out the cool mist area and bamboo. She loved seeing other little people, but was not really interested in sharing her fountains. 

We loved our visit to Huntington, there was a LOT of walking and it was blistering hot (cement and sun aren't a great combo, bring sunscreen!)- but thankfully the art museums are air conditioned. We spent a little over 2 hours there, and on our walk back to our car Olivia fell asleep, and boy was she out of it! All tuckered out, but she genuinely enjoyed seeing the different gardens, flowers, water and bridges. I hope to go back with Aaron and a bit more time (we didn't get there until 11:30am, I'd like to get there when it opens at 10:30am) to see more of the gardens and art museums. 

(photos in no particular order)

Let's face it, after walking around (although Olivia rode in her umbrella stroller) in the hot sun, you gotta cool your feet off! 

I laughed out loud when I looked back at this photo, this is what I got when I told Olivia to smile. Silly girl. What kind of smile is this!? 

When Liv first saw this fountain she thought it was a frog - so she's signing "frog" here. She realized soon though that it's a fish, not a frog.

Again - crazy girl with a silly face. She loved walking back and forth across the little rock stream.

Pretty girl.

Japanese Gardens.

More Japanese Gardens.

Checking out the observatory.

Me and my baby girl.

Olivia was pointing out everyone's eyes (the fish, hers, and here she's pointing to mine).

After insisting on her solitude for most of the afternoon, she decided to follow this cute girl from Primary - Alexis - around EVERYWHERE. Whatever Alexis did, Olivia would do (even scratch her elbow!)

Livi was a little territorial about her fountains.

Gorgeous flowers. Love the color.