When Sister was here, we went to the Arboretum.  Two years ago when the Siblings Laird came down for a long weekend (in which they took Dallas by storm) we all went to the Arboretum.  Somehow, we had a ridiculously fun time regardless of the fact that it’s a giant garden and boys usually don’t like gardens.  In any case, Sister really, really, really pretty please wanted to go back.

I just so happened to have (more) free tickets.

Oh, and my free tickets also included a symphony concert.

What more could a natural born Laird girl want?!

And so on Wednesday, the day of “how much can we wear Jenna out just to see what happens”, we went to the Arboretum in the evening.  Where we did not act our ages at all.

The following photographs illustrate this fact.  Sister and I even said this to one another as we were scampering (OK, she was scampering, I was walking quickly) about the Arboretum.

Observe.

We went immediately to the Texas Town for little children.  There were no little children there, so we decided to pretend WE were the little children.  Unfortunately our imaginations are just as active as they were when we lived in The Red House, and we had no problem with this at all.

Sister visited the tiny church. “Why are there Bible verses written all over the wall?” She asked.

Sigh.

(She’s even a recent Bible College graduate.)

Next we tried our hand at plowing the fields.  Sister did a pretty good job.

Due to my recent surgery, it was harder work for me.

We discovered a small house next to the plowing implements, and we went inside.  Sister said, “WOAH, COOL!” when she discovered the table set with dishes, the small desk and work table, and old fashioned bed.

“Let’s take a picture of us at the table pretending we’re eating,” one of us suggested, I can’t really remember who.

We had a little trouble with the timer on the camera.  So we thought we’d try again.

Our second attempt worked much better.

In this consummate “violent sibling” picture, Sister is beating me over the head with plates and a large pot.  She looks very pleased with herself, and I’m sure Mom is shaking her head as she views this and wondering where Pops and her parenting went wrong.

(Nowhere, Mom.  Don’t worry.)

After the violent picture was over, we went outside and discovered…a water pump!

“OH COOL!” Sister shrieked (again), “I’ve never done this before!)”

So we took turns pumping the water.

It was miraculous.

The next house we visited was the doctor’s house.  We decided to switch roles, I did all the work and Sister rested in bed and recovered from some malady.

(I hate ironing, especially old-timey ironing.  It’s so lame.)

(Sister almost chickend out of getting in the bed.  “It looks gross,” she whined.)

Once we got sick of playing in the doctor’s house, we left and moved on to the covered wagon.  We set the camera up and got the timer to work, and our first attempted picture is only of Sister sitting in the wagon, not even looking at the camera.  This is because I was trying to “run” to get into the wagon.  I didn’t even make it before the picture took, so we decided to trade places for the second picture.  It worked much better.

Happy…SAD!  (We have always been drama queens.)

We left the pioneer village and took an hour to tour the rest of the gardens.  We wandered down paths and through lovely gardens, it was super fun.

Sister had her picture taken here two years ago, so we did another one this trip as well.

I, of course, got in the fountain.  It’s tradition. (But no one was looking except Sister when I did it, so we didn’t get in trouble.)

I walked up the steps to get a view of the pool against the lake, and my wet footprints cracked Sister up so much that she took a picture.

Last stop: the toads.

I really like this fat guy.

Sister also liked him.

After our tour we headed to the ampitheatre where we set our picnic blanket down on the hill (in a super good spot, mind you) and proceeded to SLIDE DOWN into the people below us!  It was real embarassing, and no matter what we tried, we couldn’t keep the blanket from sliding.  So we picked up our stuff and moved to a flat spot on the top of the hill where we safely enjoyed 45 minutes of the concert.

Sister forgot her sweater, so she wore mine. After 45 minutes, we were both so cold that we had to leave.

We headed home as it grew dark.  It was just the perfect way to end a really, really fun visit with Sister.

Acting one’s age is SO overrated.