the US botanical garden conservatory

the unites states botanical gardens are conveniently right on the mall but we hadn't made our way in until last weekend.

 it was a shmorgishborg for someone still learning on her fun camera.

 & i went a little snap happy.

which is not always well received,

but they get over it.

my lens fogged up & we all shed a few layers on an otherwise crisp day while inside the greenhouse.

they had replicas of all the major sites around dc made out of only natural materials like dirt, leaves, sticks, rocks, etc. they were stupid cool. do you see the teeny abe?

the conservatory is divided into habitats like the wet lands, primeval plants (plants that have survived for 150 million years), the jungle, southern exposure, the desert, rare and endangered species, hawaiin gardens, & my personal favorite: the medicinal plants.

 outside there was a kid sized model home that showed different ideas & benefits to sustainable living.

this is my favorite photograph i took during the day:

i'd been messing a bit with the aperture but this is sooc (straight out of the camera). i was so excited i emailed it to my daddy. haha.

but it came at a price. now if you thought 2 kids (one strapped in stroller even!) could be wrangled by 3 adults, you'd be wrong. while i was in my own little photog haze ellery wandered off & for quite literally 2.5 seconds we didn't know where she was. mid picture i go "who has ellery?" & bryce & austin look at me like oh crap, you don't?
in a split second i called for her & went darting as a lady yelled from the other end of the massive jungle exhibit, "did anyone lose a little girl?". when i got to her she had little tears in her eyes & just kept saying "i couldn't find you mommy. i was looking and looking. i couldn't find you." & then i barfed. okay not really but i don't recommend misplacing your child. i was immediately shaky & nauseous & it was terrible. i might have held her the rest of the time we were there. don't judge me. :)

after recovering we went to the orchid garden. there's a whole sealed room for all the species of orchids. they were incredible.

just outside is the native american museum & i thought it was kind of fun comparing it with it's mini mushroom model we'd just seen. :)

wish we had time to go again but i'm thinking it was a one time shot. if you ever visit dc, don't skip the botanical conservatory.