Frederik Meijer Gardens

If you haven't already noticed, I'm kind of bad at blogging on time. I do things in my life, and days (or weeks) later, I'll finally post about it. So, almost two weeks ago, I ventured out to Frederik Meijer Gardens with my sister, her "little sister" (Big Brothers, Big Sisters), my brother-in-law, and my niece! It was a gorgeous day of lovely sunshine, perfect weather, and beautiful butterflies and plants.

Frederik Meijer Gardens is a pretty neat place to go. It's a national gardens, which is pretty awesome to have in town, full of beautiful flowers, sculptures, and butterflies when they are "in bloom." Have any of you ever been to these gardens before?

 

They also host a summer concert series, which I haven't gone to before, but it seems like a really good time. They always have really great artists lined up, and this year they have Ray LaMontagne in July. I'm not sure if I'll be going yet, but I would really love to see him perform. Ray LaMontagne is a seriously talented musician, and his song "Can I Stay" is actually our wedding song. :)

While we were there, we of course checked out their butterfly exhibit because it's really awesome to be up close + personal with those pretty creatures. I'll be honest, they kind of make me jump a little when they fly near me, but I can't get over how many of them there are + how different they all are. They're so neat looking, with all of their different markings, and it was really fun to see my 1-year-old niece react to them. You can see that in the first picture below that I took of her (one of my favorite pictures of her). It looks like she is discovering something for the first time (which she kind of is), with that look of wonder in her eyes and that tiny little smile. Makes my heart melt!

It was a really, really lovely day and I'm so glad my sister asked me if I wanted to go with them. If you've never been before, I suggest you go, especially when they have their butterflies exhibit. You won't regret it.

These pictures were edited with the awesome photoshop actions by A Beautiful Mess. The actions I used were Joan + Glow (Brighten) from The Mini Collection!