Morton Arboretum

Yesterday, we met one of Malcolm's friends from school at the Morton Arboretum.  The arboretum is one of those places that we rarely go, then wonder why we aren't there every week.  It is just beautiful and their children's garden is top notch.

As we headed out the door, I noticed that it was a bit overcast. By the time we were pulling out of the driveway, it was sprinkling. Once we hit the interstate (about 5-10 minutes), it was raining, and after being on the interstate for about a minute, it was a downpour, complete with lots of thunder and lightning. By the time we were as far as where my husband works, I decided that this was ridiculous, not to mention dangerous, and took the next exit. My husband called just then to tell me that they were getting all sorts of severe storm warnings. Once I found a safe place to park, I called the other mom to find out where they were and what the weather was like. They were already at the arboretum and were sitting in their car, and she said it looked like it was starting to let up. I checked a forecast that went in 15 minute intervals, and we decide to push on ahead and go. I'm so glad we did, because the kids had an absolute blast.

I was still raining a little on and off when we got there, so we went for a little walk and looked at the trees and some of the art installations. Malcolm and his friend were walking ahead of us and they were so cute walking along the path chatting. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but they were having quite the conversation.

There is a hedge maze, and in the center is a tree with a spiral staircase around it and a platform at the top so that you can look down at the maze. We made it to the center of the maze quickly, and the boys went up the stairs to look down. I stayed down below with Dorothy who was in the stroller.

The boys, looking out from the top.

Malcolm, coming down the stairs around the tree.

We moved on to the children's garden area where the kids had lots of fun climbing and playing with the different water features. Dorothy wanted to immerse herself, but there is no swimming allowed.

She loved playing with this frog water fountain and got very wet.

Crawling through a giant acorn.

There are several water pumps around the children's garden, and Malcolm really loved trying to work them, but he wasn't always strong enough. Sometimes he needed help.









Here is another water pump that he and his friend are doing together. The water flows into a trough and can go either way and flow down a series of stair-step troughs. There are little barriers that the kids can move to force the water to flow different ways.



The boys got the water flowing, and Dorothy took it upon herself to climb up into the troughs. (I did take her down right after taking the picture.)




There are a couple of ponds and streams that the kids can either wade in or use the stepping stones to cross. The last time we were here, Malcolm and I caught tadpoles in this one. We looked, but didn't see any tadpoles or frogs this time.

Concentrating on staying on the rocks.

There is also a tree house area with rope ladders and bridges and forts built around several trees. Last year, he was too small to do this by himself and daddy had to help him. He did just great this time.




We had lunch at the cafe there which was very good, then went back to play some more. We didn't leave until almost an hour and a half past nap time and both kids were completely wiped out. Poor Dorothy is still recuperating today.