{"id":2260,"date":"2013-07-04T12:28:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-04T17:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=2260"},"modified":"2013-07-04T12:28:54","modified_gmt":"2013-07-04T17:28:54","slug":"alabama-discoveries-6-bellingrath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/07\/alabama-discoveries-6-bellingrath.html","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Discoveries 6: Bellingrath Gardens for Mother’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DSC_2986\"<\/a>

I love this picture!<\/p><\/div>\n

As always, when asked what I want for Mother’s Day, the answer is the same. I want an outing with the family at a\u00a0location\u00a0of MY choosing.<\/p>\n

It often involves something more feminine. Being in a house full of guys, I usually have to give up the girlier things during the year, but for Mother’s Day I get my berry picking and botanical gardens visits!<\/p>\n

This year, I asked for a trip to Bellingrath Gardens near Mobile, Alabama. Again. I had already dragged the family out there over the holidays to see the fantastic light show<\/a>, but I wanted to see it in the spring with all the flowers in bloom before we moved to Colorado.<\/p>\n

I was not disappointed. And Timmy, my little naturalist, was just as impressed with all the flowers and animals.<\/p>\n

I took the good camera with us so I could capture the beauty! Enjoy some pictures. Be forewarned, I took over 300 pictures, so I’ve distilled it down to about 30 of my favorites.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Timmy<\/a>

Timmy was helping me find pretty flowers to photograph in the rose garden. I was in heaven with all the roses!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Plumeria!<\/a>

These next few are in a tropical greenhouse exhibit. Plumeria! The scent of these flowers bring back so many memories of Hawaii!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Pretty<\/a>

Pretty orchids!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A pineapple plant! It was cool for the kids to see how pineapple actually grow…NOT on trees!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Back<\/a>

Back outside, plenty of pretty flowers as you walk through the gardens.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"DSC_2940\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_2942\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I had zinnias in my garden in Nebraska<\/a>. I love how bright and cheerful they are.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Fuchsias!<\/a>

Fuchsias! I had one of these as a hanging basket in college. It was very big and somewhat overwhelming.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Reading<\/a>

Reading the dedication of the park to the Bellingrath family.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"There<\/a>

There was plenty of wildlife to see also. This carp had to be over 2′ long!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I attempted to manually focus this picture so we can see the spider web and the TINY little spider (towards the left) who did all this work.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"If<\/a>

If you look closely, there’s a snake on this tree branch. Timmy amazingly saw it slithering in the brush and brought our attention to it.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Look,<\/a>

Look, it’s a real live armadillo! I think Jacob was the one who saw it from a distance scavenging among the dead leaves. I had to seriously zoom in on this picture.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The kids were impressed with the bamboo. They were feeling the velvet-y exterior.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"I<\/a>

I don’t know what this is, but it’s pretty.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"There<\/a>

There was a nature walk through a wildlife refuge…I liked the cypress with the Spanish moss.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A lizard. We saw many of these on the boardwalk.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"There<\/a>

There was an edible garden area. Swiss chard, parsley and pansies. I had that same Swiss chard among my zinnias in Nebraska. It’s called “City Lights” if you want to find the seeds.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Pansies.\"<\/a>

Pansies.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Heading<\/a>

Heading towards the Asian garden.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>

More carp…these ones were pretty friendly. I guess they assumed we’d feed them, so they followed us around.<\/p><\/div>\n

\""Here<\/a>

“Here fishy fishy….”<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>

My camera’s flash was being temperamental here.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, when asked what I want for Mother’s Day, the answer is the same. I want an outing with the family at a\u00a0location\u00a0of MY choosing. It often involves something more feminine. Being in a house full of guys, I usually have to give up the girlier things during the year, but for Mother’s Day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[170,233,393,51,229],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-As","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2884,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/01\/colorado-discoveries-25-denver-botanic-gardens.html","url_meta":{"origin":2260,"position":0},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 25: Denver Botanic Gardens","date":"03 January 14","format":false,"excerpt":"During my inlaws' visit to Colorado, we took a day and went up to Golden and Denver. While Dave, his Dad and Jacob visited Caboose Hobbies in Denver, Dave's Mom, Timmy and I headed over to the Denver Botanic Gardens which was only a couple miles away. Being that it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/2013-12-28-Denver-Botanic-Gardens1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1608,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/12\/alabama-discoveries-4-bellingrath-gardens-christmas.html","url_meta":{"origin":2260,"position":1},"title":"Alabama Discoveries 4: Bellingrath Gardens Magic Christmas in Lights (Includes Visit Tips)","date":"29 December 12","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been wanting to write about this for a while, but before I knew it, Christmas got a bit overwhelming.\u00a0 Since there are still several days to enjoy the light show, I will try to get this post out there before their last weekend so people can try to fit\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","img":{"alt_text":"DSC_1405","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/DSC_1405-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":428,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/04\/nebraska-discoveries-3-lauritzen-gardens-omahas-botanical-center.html","url_meta":{"origin":2260,"position":2},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 12: Lauritzen Gardens…Omaha’s Botanical Center","date":"28 April 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I won't be in the Omaha area forever, I realized recently that my time is running out for visiting the many attractions in the area. \u00a0Thanks to my boys' field trips, Cub Scouting and birthday party invitations, they've already been to several area attractions. \u00a0But I've set a new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"flowers\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_yz59FVsseJY\/S9bvPm09s2I\/AAAAAAAA_Ko\/FNfMoEUi76Y\/s400\/GO-ElectronicMap2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4619,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2016\/08\/colorado-discoveries-50-palmer-trail-gotg.html","url_meta":{"origin":2260,"position":3},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 50: Get Away from the Crowds with the Palmer Trail at the Garden of the Gods","date":"04 August 16","format":false,"excerpt":"It is clear that the Garden of the Gods is among the most popular locations to visit in Colorado Springs. Trip Advisor will tell you that it's the #1 tourist attraction in Colorado Springs, ranking higher than Pikes Peak and the U.S. Olympic Center. I even wrote about Garden of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/1001911_10151780287113428_1881356352_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":721,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/03\/uss-alabama-battleship-overnight-adventure-in-mobile.html","url_meta":{"origin":2260,"position":4},"title":"Alabama Discoveries 3: USS Alabama Battleship “Overnight Adventure” in Mobile","date":"30 March 12","format":false,"excerpt":"You can get an idea of how BIG the guns are on this ship. This past weekend the boys had the opportunity to camp out on the USS Alabama battleship at its museum location in Mobile Bay. \u00a0This is something the organization does for Scout groups (and other groups) most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"alabama\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-g8fHqkWI2wY\/T3UhRQhgqLI\/AAAAAAABhvE\/AxkG1GLbB9w\/s640\/IMG_2756.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":955,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/04\/florida-discoveries-21-dolphin-cruising-in-destin.html","url_meta":{"origin":2260,"position":5},"title":"Florida Discoveries 21: Dolphin Cruising in Destin","date":"30 April 12","format":false,"excerpt":"I guess it's been a while since I wrote one of these \"Discoveries\" posts, isn't it? It doesn't mean we didn't do anything -- in fact, I'm reminded that I should relabel my USS Alabama, Mardi Gras and Santa Train posts \"Alabama Discoveries\"...we do seem to spend a lot of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"boating\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/IMG_1971-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2260"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2295,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260\/revisions\/2295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}