So after church, the whole family, including Aunt Leslie, piled into Ruby, our 1993 Plymouth Grand Voyager, and went to find the trilliums. None of us had any idea of what a trillium looked like, but Tom had made it sound like there were just thousands of them, so I was hoping it would be pretty obvious. Dan said he thought they were a small blue flower, sort of like a violet or bluebell. The boys, of course, were super mad that we weren't going to the Arboretum as we had originally planned. They were threatening all kinds of anger if there wasn't a place to throw the frisbee. But this park had everything we needed: playground equipment, wide open spaces, grass...and a forest full of flowers.
Before getting to the trilliums, we found a tree that was surrounded by jack-in-the-pulpits:
Our anxiety about correctly identifying the trilliums vanished as we rounded a bend to see a vast carpet of three-petaled white and pink flowers:
The boys were quick to point out that Dan was completely wrong about the color being blue. Thanks, guys:
I wanted to stay there all evening, snapping pictures and enjoying the serenity. But we'd promised that everyone could do something they wanted to do, so our next activity was throwing Leslie's new football around a big grassy field. Adam spent most of that time on the blanket with Esther, who kept trying to feed him pieces of her string cheese:
I turned out to have no football-throwing genes, in spite of my dad's high school football career. Eli was much better, and Dan and Leslie were great:
I decided that since I couldn't throw anyway, I might as well practice using my left hand to increase my brain power (thanks for the tip, LL).
After football, it was time to try out the playground equipment. Leslie and Dan took turns holding Esther as they rode down the tall, metal, old-school slide. I enjoyed petting a cute little dog that looked like part chihuahua, part rat terrier. And Eli made us laugh by crawling through the monkey bars instead of swinging from them:
All in all, a very satisfying way to spend a Sunday evening. Thanks, Tom!
7 comments:
That sounds like a really fun evening! You'll have to tell me how to get to that park - I'm always on the prowl for a new place to take the boys. Right now our "away" park is Lillie Park. Nice play area for Javi, fields for running around, and a nice long walking trail through the woods.
Here are your 5 questions (ok, they aren't 5 questions, they are more like 5 categories, but...):
1. If you got a tattoo, what would you get and why? (And if you're opposed to defacing your temple, it can be a temporary tattoo...) Where on your body would you put it?
2. If you had a super power, what would it be? Who would be your arch nemesis? Who would be your sidekick?
3. What is your worst bad habit? What good habit are you currently working on starting or hoping to start? What thing in your life should you probably be working on but you don't really care enough to be bothered with?
4. If you had a magic button, what would happen when you pushed it?
5. What would be your dream car and what would be the coolest feature?
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1. Leave me a comment saying, "I too am an egomaniac."
2. I'll respond by asking you up to five questions. You will answer them, because you like talking about yourself.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
I really love nights like that, it makes the hard days worth it. Let me know where this park is I would love to go. Great pictures they made me laugh. :)
Okay, to get to Montibeller Park, take Ellsworth toward Ypsilanti. The park is on the left, just past Carpenter Road/ Meijer. To get to the trilliums, walk past the tennis courts to the forest. You will see two paths. We took the left one, which wound around and eventually came to the trilliums and then out again. The right path would be the more direct route. If you take the left path, you will eventually come to a fork in the trail. We went right at that fork...I wanted to go left, but I was vetoed. Good luck!
Andrea you have seen trilliums before you just don't remeber them. We have them on the Oregon coast where I point them out on our walks. Now I want to go to this park when we come as I would love to see that many trilliums in one place. Dad
Does anyone know how long the trilliums last? Do the flowers die after a few weeks, or will they last all summer?
"Trilliums" sound more like a newly discovered substance to be added to the periodic table of elements than a type of flower. Maybe that's just The Matrix talking; Ryan and I watched it a few weeks ago. Regardless, I will have to visit this park that you speak of.
Kendahl, you may be thinking of beryllium--like the beryllium sphere in Galaxy Quest...another great flick.
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