De-Claire-ation of Independence: 3rd Annual Arboretum Outing

It was a gorgeous day for our annual Spring Arboretum outing with Auntie Diana and Jacob. That morning when I woke up, I was already asking for, "Jacob? Play Jacob? Jacob play?", so it was a good thing we were meeting up with them later that morning!

Hello! Together again.

Look with my eyes, not with my hands.
Eyes, not hands. Got it.

We kicked it off the adventure by finding a squirrel. After we chased it back to his tree, we were off to the next thing ... the man with the shovel. We supervised to make sure he was doing a good job.

Heckling the local wildlife

Jacob asks, "hey, what's he doing?"

Our mommies led us to Ferdinand next, but we were more interested in looking at everything BUT the big bull.

What bull? "A bee!", I say; "my pocket", says Jacob.
"THE BULL! THE BULL!", scream our moms

After many minutes, "Oooooh ... THAT bull"

Forget that; we're going to shake the chains instead

The next thing we checked out was a water feature as a distraction from what we really wanted to do. Auntie Diana kept Jacob from sticking his hand in by telling us that the fishies would bite him!

Looking at the biting fishies

THIS is what they were trying to distract us from.
FAIL! We were off.

I don't know why, but these were fun

Then ... snacktime and the craziness on the lawns. We munch, run around, nibble, blow bubbles, chomp, chest bump (seriously, see below), and gnosh some more.

Bag of goodies

The oranges were a hit

But not as much as the easter eggs!

Family pic with busy Jacob in the back

The toy of the day was the stroller umbrella. Mommy had no idea it would be so popular, but really, she should have anticipated.

Jacob finds said umbrella

Hey, that's MY umbrella!

The tug-of-war ensues

What you have to notice here is the string cheese.
I shoved my whole stick in my mouth,
and Jacob was trying to do the same (hence, chipmunk cheeks)
so that wecould both have a good handle on the umbrella.

Realizing it's big enough for both of them.

Mommy loves this next set of pictures, so I'm posting them here together. They just make her laugh.

Not on my grill

I'll bump you, I will!

Omph!

After eating, we were off! Since Mommy forgot to bring the bubbles, we decided to join another group instead. Then, when our mommies were distracted, we darted away altogether. Luckily, Auntie Diana is fast, although she did have to run in a big circle around the landscaping to get to us. We found this old pioneer town to explore.