We're Wild About Flowers

One of the best things about living in Central Texas is the wildflower season. There is nothing prettier in Texas than wildflowers in full bloom. Of all the U.S. states we've lived in and visited, there are no natural botanical sites as beautiful as what we see outside our door every day in the spring. I even had two science teachers who agreed as I spent six weeks in 7th and 9th grades in in-depth Texas wildflower studies. Today, my vast wildflower knowledge that had been buried came bubbling back up as we spent the day at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.

I wasn't as impressed as I was with the Zilker Botanical Gardens a few days ago, but it was still beautiful. Of course, the Texas bluebonnets are in full bloom right now.

Are we the only state that fines people for picking or mowing a specific wildflower? We're serious about our Texas bluebonnets. 

(SIDE STORY: Last week, the kids piled in their red wagon and I pulled them through our subdivision and past a field that had patches of bluebonnets that the kids loved. However, a few days later we were driving past the field and saw the HOA's maintenance crewing mowing through the patch of bluebonnets. Abigail insisted that we needed to call the police and have that yard man arrested for cutting down the bluebonnets!)

Cooper loved sticking his hands (and shoes!) in the natural streams flowing through the center today.

Cousins Avery and Harrison were right there with Cooper with their hands in the stream.

The kids loved getting in the rocks and dirt around the flowers.

Avery in a patch of bluebonnets

Cooper didn't know what to think about the large scorpion. (This is Austin, land of hippies and artists, so there were sculptures dotting the gardens and fields throughout the center. We can't just have nature by itself, we have to have art at the same time.)

I'm thinking that the gorgeous architecture and flowers will make for a beautiful place for one of these girls to get married some day -- many, many years from now.