Nature is ever inspiring. I have never been at the Botanical Gardens before this outing and I was amazed. From the front of the entrance, it looks sort of attractive but not so much as to have pulled me there in the past. Well, I was wrong! It happens to be such a gorgeous place!

My friend and I took the kids out for a little outing a couple weeks ago, for Columbus day. I have been terrible at posting our outings and adventures lately but somehow I always come back to it because I like blogging. Anyways, the kids had so much fun that they pretty much played with sticks and leaves and ran around chasing the geese, that we didn't even see half of the place in the couple of hours we were there!

I love the above picture of Mark Jacinto and I so much! He is wearing an Ohio State sweater because that boy's heart is close to Ohio, were his grandparents live. My camera lenses had the stabilizer off, so I ended up with very few usable pictures but fortunately my friend Mei sent some pics she took that day. All her photos are marked with an ** and you can find more of her beautiful photos on her Instagram account.

**this pic is hilarious. can't remember what they were saying..

We had a picnic in the middle of a bright and beautiful day, the kids literally played in nature for hours. Below, Mark and his friend were building a house together. Their conversations were pretty hilarious.

Dominika had lots of fun watching the lake and chasing squirrels, picking rocks and getting dirty. After us moms were tired of being there for hours, while the kids could have happily stayed there for a lot longer, we got coffee and headed to Alamo Square park for a little extra adventure before our journey for the day was over. Needless to say these kids ended up exhausted but somehow wanted more! Endless energy, I'll tell ya.