Forests and Farms

Oddly enough, there was no rain yesterday (and if you would have seen the weather around here lately you would have understood why that is so odd) so we spent the day away from the house. First, we dropped Greg off at work in Bellevue and took Ammon and Ben to their classes at the local coop, then after lunch with Greg we decided to visit the Bellevue Botanical Gardens.

At first I was unsure if the kids would appreciate it, but they enjoyed whooping and hollering through the garden for almost two hours. (And I really wished I could have personally apologized to the half-dozen or so people wandering through there at the same time!)

The garden, like most of the Seattle area, has the tallest trees I think I have ever seen. They aren't big around like redwoods, but they shoot straight up to the sky. Some were conifers, most were deciduous, but all of them were so old that they towered above the buildings surrounding the gardens. So when we took the nature trail that looped for 1/3rd of a mile through undeveloped ground, Daniel was a bit unsure about what he called the "forest." I can imagine how much more intimidating those tall trees must have been for such a little guy.

We still had a few hours until Greg was finished with work, so we decided to check out the Kelsey Creek Farm Park around the corner from the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. Hidden inside a neighborhood, we finally arrived and drove past the barns and farmhouse. The farm itself was closed by the time we got there, but some sheep and goats were penned next to the road. We stopped and looked at them from the car. Each sheep was covered in long, curly cream-colored wool so the kids laughed when they noticed the sheep could hardly see with all the hair in their eyes. But as we started to drive away, Ben remarked, "Hey, mom! I thought sheep were white!"

I guess some things you just can't learn unless you see for yourself. Today we learned: 1) trees are tall and 2) sheep aren't white. Who knew you can learn so much in one day?!