On Sunday we headed back to Descanso Gardens for our 5th trip (I think?) – and we are STILL uncovering new adventures!
To kick us off, Zoe created a custom BINGO card:
Wondering what that purple insect is? It’s a BABY dragonfly! To be honest, Zoe was wrong about this one… What we THOUGHT was a baby dragonfly is actually a Water Strider, though as Bart just said, “She said it with such confidence.” Turns out that baby dragonflies are apparently “ferocious”… and if you’re interested, watch this 2-minute time lapse of one growing wings.
Our search led us to many discoveries, starting with turtles – or tortoises, I never know the difference. We always begin our visit looking for Snappy, the turtle we swore was the “same one” every time. Until we found the mega-pond:
To find our BINGO “turtle”, we headed straight there, finding a spider and its web along the way. Beside the turtle pond is the Rose Garden, our next stop on the BINGO trail. On the way the girls got distracted by a creek lined with rocks, where Ella found this beautiful leaf.
We were (of course) able to find many pink roses in the Rose Garden, and luckily, we saw several butterflies along the way. As you saw above, we accidentally signed off on a fake baby dragonfly, but we were able to see some lovely orange and blue adult dragonflies, who frequent the waters around the gardens. How about this shot of BOTH, together?
Last on the list was a water lily, and with all that water around, it seemed an easy task. Not so much. But along the way we also saw a frog protecting eggs – and this awesome squirrel, who fearlessly watched us while s/he nibbled away at tiny red flowers:
I was enamored. There were in fact two of these squirrels, and I captured a few photos of them looking at us. I wish I were skilled in Photoshop, so I could edit into the picture a hundred different things in those tiny little hands.
I mean, isn’t he saying “Please sir, can I have some more?” We may never know.
Anyway, we found our special tree playhouse again, along with more beautiful flowers:
And there were also two superhero little girls braving the rock formations – and guarding the entrance. Thank goodness.
On Sunday night we had special celebration with Zoe and a friend who also got her braces off last week (what are the chances of that?!). So I’ll end on a delicious note with the “OMG MY BRACES ARE GONE WHO CARES ABOUT TEETH?!” treat. Stay safe, and for goodness’ sake, don’t eat this every night…
Emphasis on Joy 