Lakewold Gardens, Lakewood, WA

To say my trip back to Washington was magical and amazing is a gross understatement. I felt so at home back there like nothing had changed but everything had changed. My high school was completely different, but the middle school still looked run-down :oP Happy Teriyaki was just as good but the area of Dupont is so built up now that we ended up back on the freeway instead of in the parking lot. :oP Lakewood Mall is now a Towne Center. Regardless of all the changes it still holds a very special place in my heart. And the weather was welcome relief from the heat we've been enduring in El Paso! When Mt. Rainier popped out three days before the end of our trip there it just took my breath away. I just so loved being back!

One day my mom and I decided to head over to the Lakewold Gardens. I remember doing a project on Lakewold Gardens in school, can't remember what for but I remember making a pamphlet of the gardens (I got to take pictures with our fancy digital camera that used 'floppy' discs!). But one of my better memories was when we were promoting WCB and Dream and got to run around the gardens in a fairy costume! I think I slipped on the mud and fell on my bum :oP But that was absolutely one magical day.

I am working really hard to get through all the images, I am just so excited for them but ended up taking an overwhelming 1200 pictures (mostly due to the continuous shooting the wind forces me to utilize for a steady shot of flowers!). So to help with the overwhelming feeling I'm taking it slow and editing in pieces. I was also sick for the first few days being home and now my little girl has a minor case of what I had so everything is a little slow-going anyway :o) But we are feeling better and awaiting another trip from her other grandparents next weekend!! Cannot wait for her grandpa to see her!!! He has already warned me that going into her room when he arrives late Friday is not an option but a must :o) She will be in heaven again <3

I only recently started becoming interested in flowers and plants since I have nothing close to a green thumb but I soon discovered that Lakewold Gardens has a very rare blue poppy. Poppies were also a flower I have no interest in because the Wizard of Oz scared me as a kid but as we walked around the garden and saw all the poppies I soon discovered that I love them! The blue poppies were on their last leg but one persistent one made a point to stick around (just for us! :oP). (Note: First image was a petal Zoey found already on the ground!) Zoey was not too happy when we kept her from the only remaining blue poppy but eventually stood back and admired, until we distracted her with something else :oP I know the black and white image doesn't show off the color but I really just wanted to focus more on it's beautiful, unique shape!