Rose Garden

Columbus holds many natural treasures in the form of parks.  They are scattered around the area providing a great atmosphere to spend the morning.  We decided to head to the Rose Gardens of Columbus after dropping Tristan off at school.  Prepared with snacks, water, and stroller we began our adventure only to be sidetracked before it could really begin by missing the turn into the park.  Silly mistake on my part thinking the road the sign was on wasn't the correct one to turn down.  But after a couple wrong turns we arrived safely.  We disembarked from the car and loaded up the stroller for a nice walk.  The weather was fairly cool and lower humidity.  The longer we walked through the gardens the more time we found ourselves hiding in the shade from the heat.  The shade felt fantastic.  

This little grouping of plants had a very good growing season this year.  They must be close to 8 feet tall.  We took this comparison picture to show the size of the leaves.  I think they are called elephant ears.  

Kalia had a great time walking around the park.  She loved pushing the stroller and we all tried to keep hydrated in the sunshine.  

Though the fountain made her kinda nervous, she was fine if Katie kept a hold of her.

I thought I'd better put a picture of the roses, since it is a rose garden.  The whole garden was in full bloom.  It was beautiful.  They have plaques letting you know what the names of the roses are, but I didn't include them in the picture and don't remember them.  So I'll just say it was a beautiful rose.

We sat down on a bench to have a quick snack, shortly after Kalia noticed some dogs and their owners on a pathway close by.  She was so excited about the dogs that I thought we might go say hello (with permission, of course) however, when we got close we checked with the owner.  The dogs, however didn't check first before greeting Kalia with a nice kiss and wagging tail.  Bear in mind, these dogs were the same height as Kalia.  She (understandably) was scared, clinging to my leg "all done, all done, all done!" She calmed down after a minute when I picked her up, though she decided she didn't want anything to do with the doggies.  They'd calmed down too and sat quietly while I chatted with the owner.  I thought it might be safe enough to put Kalia down to pet the doggies.  I wanted her to have a good experience to balance out the scary one.  I think we'll have to wait another day for that.  She immediately tried to climb into my arms.  We parted ways and headed to this:

I don't know what to call it... gazebo?  Anyway.  After Kalia had recovered from the scary dog experience she loved climbing up and down these stairs and stopped every so often to applaud her success.

I think we'll have to come a little earlier to see the first blooms next year.  It's a beautiful park!