Trip to Michigan - Part 1!

We are back home from another fun trip to Michigan.  Over the 9 days that we were there we went on many adventures - some the same as in years past and others brand new!  One of the places that we always like to visit is the Fredrick Meijer Gardens.  We even went twice on this trip to see different parts.  The first time all three kids went, and they played in the Great Lakes with the boats, walked through the children's garden, and went on a hunt in the sensory garden. 

 

The obligatory picture in front of the children's garden entrance.  This was the first picture with all three kids as last summer Olivia did not make the trek to the gardens!

 

Olivia loved the tree house in the children's garden as she ran through the entire tree house!  She did stop for about 30 seconds to have a quick tea party with Aunt Betsy!

 

The second trip to the gardens was just for the older two kids, and we visited a section of the gardens I have never seen before - the sculpture park.  I was amazed at the number of sculptures there as well as the variety of the art!  In the picture above the kids are sitting next to Fred and Lena Meijer for whom the gardens are named. 

 

The featured sculpture of the gardens is the DiVinci horse.  Originally designed and created in clay by DiVinci himself, the large sculpture that he intended to create never happened because a war depleted the money of the duke who was funding the project.  Also, the clay model was destroyed, and it wasn't until about 50 years ago that the drawings of the horse were discovered.  Fred Meijer paid an American artist to create the sculpture from DiVInci's plans; two horses were made.  One is here in the gardens, and the other is in Milan, the original place DiVinci and the duke planed for it to be.  It is a massive piece of art as you can see how the size compares to the two kids!!

 

We took a tram ride around the sculpture park to see many of the sculptures as well as hear the descriptions of them and any history surrounding them.  It was a very interesting ride!  Faith just loved it!  She definitely has an interest in the arts!

 

This was one of the kids' favorite sculptures!  It's called Mad Mom!!  So we were all trying to look mad as we posed by it!  When asked the kids did say that their mom does get mad at times!  We look forward to visiting in the winter to see the Christmas trees from around the world.