Longwood Gardens & Brandywine Zoo

   I was very happy that, while we were in Delaware to get Emma's hip spica cast off and have a few physical therapy sessions, we were able to have family time to explore Longwood Gardens and Brandywine Zoo two of the days that week in December. We went to the gardens in the morning on Tuesday, December 14th even though the main event going on were Christmas lights, which fortunately did turn on at Noon. Michael said it would be so hard to see the lights during the day, but at night we wouldn't be able to see the flowers. Plus it was already only 40 degrees during the day. I didn't want to be there at night when it was 20! One thing I forget is that there is no humidity up North, so 40 degrees in Delaware and Michigan feels like 55 in Florida. Not bad at all, but Emma and I still bundle up anyway. (This does not apply to Birmingham. We took Emma to the gardens there around Christmas 2019 when it was 49 degrees and that was freezing!!) Also, one fun note about Longwood Gardens is that it is actually in Pennsylvania, since Emma's hospital was close to the state line. So we can now say that we've spent a few hours in Pennsylvania instead of only driving through! :) 

  Emma has a Puppy Biscuits toy with a button that says, "Eight! Eight bees! Bzzzz!" So I exclaimed the same thing to her when I saw these little flowers with all the bees on them. And possibly because of that I am a lot more interested in bee decor these days.

  Twelve o'clock!! You can totally see those lights, haha. Now for the Atrium, our favorite part!

  I was also extremely happy that we were able to meet up with our friends Ryan and Ben who we met at Full Sail University, where Michael and I met, in summer 2009. They are currently living in Delaware, about an hour away from the hospital. Ryan was my roommate who instantly became my super best friend and one of my bridesmaids. You can see her and a bunch of our wedding pictures here!! 💓 We still meet up every few years, which I love. The last time we saw Ryan, and her first time meeting Emma was in Summer 2019. We hadn't seen Ben in many years, maybe even since we met up when we lived in California for a year, way back in 2013, so it was great seeing him this time.

**By the way anytime there are purple bold, underlined words, you can click there and it will send you to a link for a previous blog post. I sure hope people know that. I link a lot of previous posts.

  Playing with her Puppy Biscuits toy! The Brandywine Zoo was free in the winter due to them warning online that there were limited animals out to view. Still, I expected the area to be at least five times bigger than it was. Oh well, at least it was right next to a pretty walking path area along the Brandywine Creek, so the five of us still got to spend a couple hours together before Michael and I had to take Emma back to the hospital for her next appointment.