A day of FUN!

Grandma and Grandpa Strong and Cuyler are visiting us for a long weekend. Saturday we went out for a grand day of fun. In the morning we had Elijah's favorite green whole wheat buttermilk pancakes (and yes green food coloring is part of the recipe). After that, Allan, Chris and I went out and hit some garage sales. Then we were off to the Butterfly Pavilion.

We love the Butterfly Pavilion! We have been there a couple times but this time was especially fun for Sam who is really into noticing bugs. The pavilion has a room full of exotic bugs including an indoor beehive, multiple varieties of tarantulas, scorpians, cockroaches, stick bugs etc. They also have a tarantuala named Rosie that you can hold. Elijah wasn't interested but Sammy (with a little help) had the huge spider walk on his hand. He was then the proud recipient of a "I held Rosie" sticker. He wore his badge the rest of the day.

It was then on to the small aquarium section. They have a tank with Nemo and Dory and some open tanks where you can touch a horseshoe crab, sea urchin, and starfish. Again, Elijah wasn't interested but Sammy was very involved in getting his hands wet.

Then the main attraction --the butterfly garden. The pavilion has a large, very humid, tropical garden in which the butterflies live. There are pathways throughout the garden and you are actually walking amid the butterflies as they flutter around, eat of fruit and blossoms, and rest on leaves. Sam was full of "oohs" (for those of you that have heard his repeated sound of interest). This is where I really wish I had a better camera. I was unable to catch any good pictures of the butterflies. Oh well, maybe this week.

The pavilion also has a hands on play area. They boys had great fun climbing around the huge honey comb, doing crayon rubbings of bugs, watching other kids climb the spider web, playing with microscopes and mechanical representations of various bug functions (chirping legs, mosquito and butterfly noses, termite talk etc.) They also have huge, larger than human robot insects. Elijah steered clear of them but Sam would stare and point at them.

We finished the pavilion trip by watching one of their daily butterfly releases. The pavilion imports cocoons from around the world and then release the butterflies into the garden when they emerge. It was pretty cool to see the new butterflies up close, learn a little more about them, and see them flutter away when released.

After our visit to the Butterfly Pavilion we went to see the new animated movie Kung fu Panda. We had all heard great things about it and were not disappointed. The story was entertaining, the kung fu was amusing and silly, the music beautiful, and the message was good. A great movie for the entire family (though Sam did get a little bored in the middle, but Elijah was interested the entire time).

With all this playing the boys were exhausted and the rest of us were hungry. We decided to take the long road to an amazing resturant in Golden called Ali Baba Grill. It is probably a good thing this resturant isn't closer to home. I dream of this food! They serve middle eastern cusine, have the most heavenly hummus, excellent kababs, and fresh pita bread. Oh my, my mouth is watering! It is well worth the trip to eat there.

Overall it was an amazingly fun day spent as a family. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa we all had a great time!