Well, we were back to Denver to see my doctor again. This time we got to see lots of people, though. We got in late Thursday night and headed to the OB on Friday morning. After that, we met up with Anna and Duncan for a fabulous lunch at Maggiano's. (Again with the laziness, I took no pictures that day...bah) But, it was so fun to get to see them and hear a little bit about their time in Italy and Alaska- crazy world travelers! After that we took the kids to a park to play for the afternoon, saw Jason briefly at the end of the day (because we needed to borrow his microwave!) and called it a day.
Saturday morning we went to the Butterfly Pavillion in Westminster. Nathan had just finished his unit on bugs, and was really excited to see some of the things we had been learning about.
And, to his great delight, they were serving ice cream cake just outside to celebrate their re-opening after some rennovations :) Who can say no to that on a hot day???!!!
Just inside, the kids got to meet a plushy preying mantis- needless to say they were leary of the fellow, but they could be brave enough for a picture of Daddy and Grandpa held them!
Here is Nathan looking at a scorpion who looks poised to attack. He had just asked me if he could get out... but I assured him if he could I would not be in there :)
They also have a very large tarantula that they allow people over 3 years of age to hold. Funny, Nathan was old enough be couldn't be convinced to give it a go, and Hannah took every lap she could get into to get close enough to see it!
Oddly enough, they also had a section with fish, small sting rays, starfish, etc. Hannah LOVED this part. Lately she has decided she loves to watch fish, and it is now a regular stop for us on every Walmart run :)
She also really enjoyed touching the rays and the starfish!
Pay no attention to the puffy prego lady...Nathan was super excited about all the butterflies! He has been taking his net on every nature walk trying to catch one, and had no success. (Our home teacher did catch him a firefly, though- funny story on that later!)
We also got to see a show in the "Wings of the Tropics" exhibit where they released a couple dozen new butterflies that had just come out of Chrysalis that day. I have to say, they were not kidding when they said "tropics"! It was soooooo hot in there I could hardly breathe. I had to step out several times and wipe down to keep from passing out! So, here are some pics that Jeremy got :)
When they release the butterflies, they didn't know how to fly very well, so they were falling on people and wobbling all over the place.
I was really surprised at the number of butterflies in there! You simply could not walk a step without feeling like you were under attack! They were flying everywhere, landing anywhere they pleased, all over the trees, leaves, all over! All different shapes, colors, sizes.... super cool. They said they usually have about 1000 of them at a time in there!
They have these dishes of nectarous fruits that had several butterflies at a time in them, which I guess helps to keep them alive longer.
Hannah wanted to badly to hold one, but is such a spatz that is wasn't working out. She finally stumbled upon one that did not fly away (probably because it was dead), but she was super happy about it!
She even consented to stand nicely next to this one before chasing after it :)
She didn't get much further than looking at him before he flew away, but he was a big pretty one!
I was standing in there talking to my dad, when I looked up and notice he had a hitch hiker on his head! This fellow sat up there for several minutes, as we inched our way to the exit. He left before they caught him, but they do have a system to check for escapees, just in case!
Once we got out, Hannah enjoyed playing on the large flower climbers and Nathan went through the maze several times.
After tuckering themselves out, the kids took a nice long nap while Jeremy and I enjoyed a game of Phase 10 with Ken, Cathy and Jason. When they woke up, we all headed out to Gunther Toody's, where Jeremy took the liberty of decieving the staff into believing it was my birthday. Yes, they would not believe me that it was not, and I had to wear the hat and do the twist...and didn't even get a free dessert! I made Jeremy wear the hat for the rest of the evening, and Jason got a couple shots of the whole fam before we went home (please keep in mind that I am squished up and leaning against a bar stool, which consequently made me look even more enormous, oh well.
We traveled back to Oklahoma in time to enjoy the holiday restfully at home. Nothing much to report there. Slept in, played games, worked on some personal projects, and spent the afternoon with a few friends at a swim party/BBQ. Sad to see the long weekend end, but grateful for a great time! More soon enough. We have 2 remaining Dr.'s visits before the delivery - scheduled for the early morning hours on October 17th- and are in an Ocean Life unit for school, so will be visiting the aquarium soon!
Oh, the funny story about fireflies: We were standing on the driveway chatting with our home teacher after a visit when he pointed out the bright flashes of light in and around the bushes in our yard, asking Nathan if he saw the fireflies. You should have seen Jeremy's face! He thought fireflies were mythical creatures like pixies :) He said that he had been seeing the bright flashes of light for the last several days, but thought he was just seeing things, so he never said anything. :) So, our home teacher went and caught one for Nathan (and Jeremy). Pretty neat.
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