Baby Jo-Jo at The Gardens

Thursday, May 9:  "Are we going anywhere today, Grandma?" This is the question posed to me each Thursday afternoon as we walk to my car from Kaity's school. It had been rainy and windy most of the day, I was fighting (and not winning) a cold, my body felt like it had been run over by a mega-truck ... BUT ... Kaity-Girl likes to go places! I reminded her that she had wanted to show me the BIG HORSE out at Meijer Gardens ... so off we went!

 And LOOK WHO was stowed, quite secretly, in Kaity's backpack all throughout her school day!?!?! Why, it was Baby Jo-Jo herself! Kaity thought it would be quite handy if we used my umbrella stroller for our baby's introduction to The Gardens. Kaity buckled Jo-Jo safely in and away we went ... I'm talking ... TOP speed (as always with Kaity).

 I asked Kaity to sit next to Fred and Lena Meijer for a photo shoot ...

 Here is the GIANT HORSE Kaity was excited to show me. He is VERY BIG, for sure. I have seen him in the past, but never enjoyed it like I did today. Something about seeing things through the eyes of children ... always a treat.

Baby Jo-Jo was a bit intimidated by the HUGE horse, so Kaity took her to the baby horse and gave her a short ride.

 Kaity was a very proud care-giver.

 I talked Kaity into going into the Children's Garden ... wait ... I had to talk her into it? Yes, quite literally. Once she had seen the big horse (and showed me underneath the horse to what really intrigued the living daylights out of her), she was ready to go shopping over at the gift shop. I side tracked her into showing baby Jo-Jo around the children's garden first.

 It's so beautiful here ... we got Jo-Jo's feet wet. Kaity was in the middle of taking her OWN shoes off to get wet when I emphatically stated that no such thing was going to happen today! It was in the low 60's, windy, and COLD (in my estimation). Plus, when Kaity gets her toes wet--she quite literally gets her entire body soaked.

 We explored around a little bit. Kaity's expression below cracked me up. And afterwards when we got to my house and looked at these pictures (while still on my camera), we laughed so hard we ached.

 Jo-Jo got the grand tour ... lucky little baby that she was.

 I love this picture of Kaity. God gave her a beautiful little face, didn't He?

 Above is one of the few times I was able to actually get a relaxed picture of this kiddo ... she's usually on the run ...

Thank you, Kaity, for laughing and playing with me today at The Gardens! Thank you, too, baby Jo-Jo!