Butchart Gardens

Our second stop on my 30th Birthday Trip was at Butchart Gardens.

Dragon was cracking us up. As we set out, he had the map in his hands.

I don't know how he knows what a map is but he was looking at it and started saying, "We go, map says we go dis way to ice cream!" And, sure enough, there was a little ice cream cone on the map, which ended up being our first stop.

A demonstration of his map reading skills. 

Everyone said that Butchart Gardens was a must see while in Victoria.

It was definitely beautiful. 

Although, I think I want to go again in the summer when the roses and Japanese Garden are in full bloom because those were a bit underwhelming at this time of year. And I was most looking forward to the Japanese Garden. Alas!

The sunken garden, however, did not disappoint. It was full of tulips and all the other spring-time blooms.

The little house that looks down into the sunken garden was a fun resting place, not that Dragon was at all interested in resting.

The moss animals they had around were awesome. 

It's always a good feeling to stretch out your legs. 

In the middle of the sunken garden there was a big rocky, hill thing that Dragon was more than excited to climb up.

And then he climbed up the rock and claimed his title as "King of the Mountain!"

The water throughout the gardens was Dragon's favorite. 

These trees were up there on the list of my favorites. 

I love Colt's little tongue sticking out to the side of his mouth. 

And Dragon apparently does the same thing with his tongue.

We have two videos of Dragon on the carousel. The first one is when it first starts and he's super nervous because it's going faster than he expected and he just keeps asking "Up! Up!"

However, after a few turns and focusing on waving to me, he settled in and enjoyed the ride!


Dragon got cuddly towards the end and I got this gem of a picture. It's not often he cuddles with me.

And, while we were enjoying the last of the gardens, Colt was slumbering peacefully in his stroller.

Proof that he was with us at the Star Pond.

Lastly, the Italian Gardens, which were my absolute favorite. There was just something about the layout that made me want to pull up a chair and a good book and spend the day. If I had a huge lot of land (and unlimited money), I'm pretty sure I'd build a replicate of this garden in my own yard. It was a little bit of heaven on earth.

And Dragon demonstrated what my life is like 99 percent of the time these days.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye so we had our photographer take a picture of just the two of us.

Happy 30th birthday to me! It was a great day and we celebrated magnificently. I think I might need to just plan a short trip for every birthday!

Thankfully we made it through the gardens without any major meltdowns despite skipped and/or shorter than usual naps.

One more bucket list item down!