A Visit to the Gardens

Back in November, we took a meal to one of my friends who just had a baby. She lives about 45 minutes away, so after making the meal in the morning, I headed to her house to drop it off. After admiring her new baby girl, I took the kids over to the nearby Brookside Gardens. I hadn't been to the gardens since Luke and I were looking at it as a potential venue for our wedding, so it had been almost 8 years! It was a beautiful day, and I hoped the kids would be able to spend some time running around and then get Jonah home for a nap. They walked around for the first 10 minutes or so, and then Noelle wanted to be picked up. There was no way I was going to be able to carry her 30 pounds around the whole time, so we grabbed the stroller to walk around the loop.

It was beautiful seeing the sunshine reflect off the little lake, and walk around enjoying the fresh air. There were a few roses blooming, and there were unlit Christmas lights on some of the plants, as well as Christmas lights on bushes in the shapes of animals. We may need to go during the Christmas season at night to see everything lit up.

The kids climbed out of the stroller to play on a little bridge, dropping leaves over the edges and watching them float to the other side. This was when things started to go bad, and Jonah did not want to move on and head back towards the car. He wouldn't get in the stroller, so I started walking ahead and he sat down on the path to throw a little tantrum. An older couple walked past me going in the opposite direction and told me they would try to encourage him to follow me. The gentleman bent down to offer Jonah his hand, and Jonah just looked at him like "who are you" and got up on his own and ran toward me. At least he has stranger danger instilled in him, right?

We stopped to look at a monument that had been set up for victims of the sniper shootings back in 2002. I had never seen the monument before, but it brought back a lot of memories from my senior year of high school of school events being cancelled, being scared to go to the gas station, and the general fear that was felt in our area. It was a beautiful little spot, and seems like a good place for friends and family of the victims to go and honor their loved ones. 

I ushered my kids on, and we finally got back to the car after forcing Jonah back into the stroller. I had hoped that I could keep him awake for the drive home, but he fell asleep, and that short little car nap was his nap for the day. But we used that time after we got home to go to the play ground and played until it was dark. I love when Maryland weather is comfortable in fall and winter!