Shangri La Gardens - Part I

Gee whiz....who knew we had such a lovely botanical gardens just 30 minutes away? 

 I heard about Shangrila Botanical Gardens about a year ago and have yet to make the quick trip over to Orange, Texas to check it out....until today, that is.

We had a girls day with Gianna, my mom and me - and it couldn't have been a more lovely day.

I anticipated leaving really early (they open at 9am) but didn't make it there until 11:30.  The weather was perfect - warm and breezy, the azaleas were in full bloom, and the egrets were nesting.  What a perfect time to visit.

I thought it would be a great time to get some shots of my munchkin, but someone didn't have the same agenda as me.

Silly girl.

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Oh, and they have an adorable hands-on children's section.  REALLY cute.

 Lots of super cute topiaries.

 Precious mural.

 One would imagine this would be an ideal photo opportunity....if they didn't have a two year old.

They even had these clever trees....

and if they had wine already in the bottles, I'd totally invest in a vineyard of them.

They even had Mr. McGregor's garden (you know, from Peter Rabbit.)

Adorable. 

 They kids could even water the flowers.

 I'm not going to tell you how many shots I had to take of my water-dumping child before I could get these two.  (It was getting close to nap time.)

I'll have to do this post in segments.  Suffice it to say, it was a wonderful little field trip and well worth your time.  Maybe we can get a little field trip for Munchkins and Mommies one morning.

It makes for an AWESOME afternoon nap for the little ones.