Butterflies Are Pretty.

Even though we live in a pretty small town, it has a surprisingly large homeschool population. There are a number of homeschool groups that plan field trips and get-togethers, and one of the most recent ones we attended was a visit to the Botanical Gardens in Tucson. Again, we decided we'd attempt to drug Lillie up and hope for the best since it's only about an hour away (even though she has been known to get ill after 20-30 minutes of driving).

The gardens themselves are quite small, but definitely very pretty. When we go back I'll take more photos. They have a number of charming little spots like a Zen garden and a random model train village. The main attraction for us, though, was the butterfly exhibit.

There are somewhere 120 different varieties of butterflies at the Botanical Gardens. They are all absolutely stunning. I wish I had a better camera (and was a better photographer) so I could capture how lovely they were.

There was a lovely horse statue at the entrance, so of course the girls had to have their picture taken with it,

This is a plant labeled as "Mormon Tea." I have no idea what it is, or what it might be used for. I'm Mormon, and I've never heard of such a thing, but now that I know it exists I think I should probably research it.

  Pictures of lovely butterflies:

And a picture of silly munchkins pretending to be a butterfly. Some of the kiddos didn't want to be seen on camera, so you only see their hands. :D

Right next door to the Botanical Gardens is a building with a sign that says Japanese Gardens. I think we'll have to check that one out on our next excursion.