Weekend in Pictures

Dylan woke up Sunday morning feeling crummy and with an upset stomach (yeah, his first throw-up incident - which broke my heart). So we stayed home from church and decided to take the day at a slower pace, heading off to our favorite family weekend spot for a walk. Yup, it was another glorious afternoon at the Huntington Gardens!

Blooming cacti (photo by Ryan)
Fall colors in the desert garden section! (photo by Briana)
Pausing to take in the beauty-ful-ness around us.
Learning to throw his 'bouncy ball'
Later we went over to have dinner with our friends Cassi and Josh that we knew back in St. Louis (and who have recently moved back to California, living only about 10 minutes from us again!) What a treat!
After an evening with Dylan (quite a change from our pre-child visits years ago), we teased them that we may not hear from them for a while, as they'll need to recover from the blur of a two year old in their home, bouncing off the walls and feeding off the energy of their very energetic dog! We've missed them and are glad to live in the same city again!

Love Thursday - Jacaranda Trees

Los Angeles may have it's downfalls, with the smog and traffic. But it has so much more. It has near perfect weather most of the year, beautiful parks and gardens.
And Jacaranda Trees. In Bloom. Right Now.

The delicate, purple flowers line our sidewalks on our evening strolls. It seems to soften the city for me in my mind, making it feel less urban, highlighting the seemingly year-round spring season that makes LA special.
And since I've discovered them last May when I saw them first bloom, I've loved these trees. Soon they will no longer be purple and summer will take hold, but May is special here for us, in part because of these trees.

A Planting We Will Go

Kathy and I went to the Huntington Gardens' Members Only Plant Sale. It was an ordeal just to find parking (20 minutes of circling around, with me reassuring her that "I have a hunch that we'll find one soon" each lap around the lot). But once we got there, WOW, what a massive amount of rare and exotic plants. It was fun and I had really no plans to buy anything. But as it goes, I found a couple I couldn't resist getting.

A Hoya Carnosa 'Krimson Princess' that apparently was a hot item (as everyone and their brother came up to us, woefully exclaiming that we must have gotten the last one).

I love the varigated, thick leaves. And for what I expected to be a finiky plant, so far she has done well in the spot I've picked for her new home.
(*Not sure if plants are boys or girls, but I'll just give them a female gender for good measure - being that I'm currently the only girl in the house. Even the cat is a boy!)
And the most exquisite and unique blue and white Lace Cap Hydrangea.
Then we came home, bringing Ryan a cold soda as a peace offering before we trodded off to Target and OSH for planting supplies...

I'm pretty excited about my new plants and think they'll like their new home on our porch.