Secret Garden

3.5 years ago, on my birthday, Max found out about this beautiful garden open to the public. It was even pretty close to the home we were just moving into at the time. (Where we currently live) it was a beautiful place with trails, forests, flowers,  a large grassy area, and river views! It's 13 acres of peaceful beauty! When we went, it was in the Fall, and then we never went again, I don't know why, it just never got on my list of outdoor things to do! So then in recent years (or maybe just the last year) I've been doing more photo shoots and I've recommended this garden a couple times, but we never actually made it happen. And honestly I had never really looked at is as a photographer so I really wasn't even sure what it looked like in different seasons. Anyway, I did some engagement photos for Collins and Alyssa and they liked them so much that they asked me to do their bridal photos as well. They weren't sure of a location so I recommended this one and hoped they chose it just because I really wanted to go back and because of how close it is to my house. And that's the detailed story of how we became reacquainted with our secret garden. The garden exceeded all my expectations and besides a little rain for the bridal photo shoot, everything was perfect. So of course I had to go back multiple times with my family.
 And with their wedding less than 24 hours away, I'm going to share a couple of their bridal photos.

 

 

 Ok, Moving on... so a couple days later I went with my boys! We went on a Thursday when preschool was canceled! The lighting wasn't nearly as great but we had so much fun in the warm sun!

 They loved the little "maze" area! Not really a maze, but the hedges were as tall as them so it might as well been!

 I think the spring colors were even better than the fall colors that we saw the very first time we went.

So then we found the tree where we took photos of Charlie when he was 10.5 months old...and I took a new photo of Charlie in that same tree. I guess I'm feeling nostalgic with all these comparison photos.  Here is Charlie in October 2012

Charlie in March 2016

Then they found a little stream of water and they would still be playing there today if I hadn't pulled them away and bribed them with candy!

 

Oh wait, that's not all, we had to go back with Max to show him our excellent secret garden.  And this was my favorite outing yet. Mostly because Max was there too but the weather was perfect and we didn't see one other person in the garden. It was a Sunday Evening and I figured it would be busy on the weekends because it certainly wasn't busy on the weekdays, but much to my delight, we had the whole garden to ourselves!

 

This was day 2 of potty training. He may have peed his pants twice while we were there. 

The lighting was much better this time too!

Haha...when a bee charges Max....it's ok, you can keep laughing...I still am!!  He'll want me to point out that it was a massive bee!

Camo bark

 Charlie initiated some games of hide and seek, I was worried at first since I didn't want to lose my boys in the garden but then he reminded me that THIS is how he hides!

Our little two year old, bashful from all the attention. 

 

We found some newts!

Miles has a pretty great run!

The grimy pond full of newts!

THEY ARE SO MUCH NICER TO EACH OTHER WHEN WE ARE OUTSIDE!!

It's a big tree!

We hiked a little bit for better views of the Willamette

 

And then we went back to the grassy area to run and run!

...and do lots of tricks!

 Miles doing a cartwheel. Check out that middle picture...it kills me!

Somersaults!

Charlie doing a cartwheel! 

 Max showing his tricks!

 and a whole lot of running!

Then all of a sudden we turned around and saw this view!

There was also a lot of jumping!

 and eventually some resting.

 and some more brotherly love!

When we finally left, the gate was closed, and the thought crossed my mind that we may be locked in and I didn't even care! What a perfect place to get stuck over night! But then it automatically opened...so there's that!

 

And that is our secret garden. It's free and open to public but as you probably noticed, I intentionally didn't mention the name! haha! It just may be my secret for a little longer, Unless you want to come with us, then that's okay too!