Saturday at the Rose Garden

Last Saturday Logan and I took Leah to the Merrick Rose Garden in Evanston to have lunch and show her the flowers. We wanted to enjoy the weekend because Logan had just finished his final project and his college career. I also thought it would be a great place to take more pictures of Leah. We stumbled upon this garden when we first moved to Evanston and were looking for places to live. We thought it would be appropriate to visit just before we move away.

First picture: I have been searching my entire life to photograph this species of insect and my dreams finally came true. Here is the yellowis black dotis bug native to the north Chicago area. I've learned about this species from a National Geographic piece when I was a child and knew that someday I would see a live one. Okay, okay, I wanted to take close-ups of the roses and just happened to find this amazing specimen of the yellowis black dotis bug.

Second and third pictures:
Leah loved looking at the roses, mainly so she could rip off the petals. I don't know if you can tell in the big picture, but she's opening her mouth wide. And in the smaller one she is trying to put a petal in her mouth.







Fourth picture: Our lives have been so busy lately trying to make big life decisions and pack our house. So I finally decided to stop and smell the roses. We actually spent time here at the garden deciding if Logan should take the job offer in Provo. It's such a beautiful spot to enjoy nature and contemplate life decisions.

The last pictures: Leah is so interested in flowers that now when she sees them outside, she wants to walk right over to them and feel the petals. At the back of the garden is a water fountain, and we had to get a picture of Leah trying to touch the water. Every time she put her hand in the water, it would spray her in the face so it was fun to watch her figure it out.