Today is Thanksgiving Point. We are all excited to see the butterflies. Then there are the dinosaurs and the Imax movies and so there is going to be a lot to do today. We had breakfast at the hotel again and took our time and then headed out to Lehi. We saw the hang-gliders on the way.
It is a big place but we found where the butterflies are so we headed there right off the bat. We all had a lot of energy and we first see this awesome mural.
Inside the building there were MANY activities for the kids to see and do. Everyone was really having a great time.
I know this is a lot--but I loved the collections and it was really cool to see all the different species. I could have studied these all day.
After everyone had seen what they wanted in the main part of the center, we went off to see the butterflies. Ambur didn't go in--Gimlet wasn't able to go into the center for obvious reasons. So she stayed outside and watched from there.
They gave us a little education and taught us not to pick up the butterflies, but to let them crawl onto our hands. This is really a tough temptation when they are all around you. They were eating when we went in and this table is totally full of moths and butterflies eating and one rule was not to be bothering them while they were eating.
These are the main ones we saw. I love the blue ones. They were so beautiful.
Kinsley was seeing the most of the butterflies, but her patience would run thin and she couldn't wait long enough for them to crawl onto her hand or arm. She really wanted just to pick it up and they would fly away. Ashlyn would sit in one place for several minutes just patiently waiting to have one make up it's mind to get onto her hand/arm. they told us to hold two fingers by the insect we wanted to hold and Ashlyn managed to get one first.
Tessa got one pretty easily but it didn't last long.
The plants and flowers inside were so beautiful. This Hibiscus was so large.
These are all cocoons lined up in an office, the reflections are strong, but you can sort of tell what they are and the kids-especially Kinsley especially just loved looking at them and reading what kind of moth/butterfly would come out of the cocoon. There was some great education about them and it was really interesting.
We got the opportunity to hold a huge cockroach if we wanted and it was pretty cool. They were very careful with it and it was really big. We all had a fun time being able to learn about the hissing cockroach and to hold it.
We went to a 3d movie about dinosaurs and settled in to watch it. There were three movies there, I just chose the next one. It was pretty fun. We also saw the dinosaur exhibits that were inside. It was very interactive and lots of fun.
Lunch was delicious and we all had a nice relaxing rest at lunch then headed out to the 'Farm'. We almost didn't go out to the farm, but decided we didn't want to take a chance of missing anything and off we went. It turned out to be so much fun. Gimlet has a kinship with farm animals. Especially horses. She just loves them and they love her. This cow was pretty interested in her as well. It looks like they are having a standoff of some kind, but they were just getting to know each other and really interested in each other. It is always fun to watch.
Tessa and Jaxon got to ride the ponies and they had a lot of fun. Ambur couldn't even really watch because Gimme just wanted to say hello to the horses. But it was fun.
There was lots of petting, feeding and enjoying of the animals.
I debated if I should put these pictures of the crazy cow on, but it was quite a memory so I am leaving them in. We were all walking from one pen to the next and we came upon this cow who I can only refer to as crazy cow. The beast was acting so weird, like it had that crazy disease that moose get and just turn in circles. This cow was just putting his head back as far as he could then just swinging it forward and doing it over and over. I don't know if he just had an itch he couldn't reach or what.... but he sure was funny.
These guys are holding the moss from the bottom of the pond. They were cleaning the pond and asked if they wanted to touch it. Not me, but the two adventurous kiddos did and they said even though it looked wet, it was totally dry.
We headed out to the Interactive Dinosaur exhibit. It was so cool. You just walk through this path (which I didn't know was going to be so long) and saw all kinds of dinosaurs. Jaxon just loved this--well we all did, they were so lifelike.
It got much hotter than I had anticipated and we were all pretty hot and still a ways to walk to finish the dinosaurs and then back to the building and to the last place we will be going to, The museum of Natural Curiosity. We have had so much fun at all the other places, we are going to end up a little short of time. We have all walked so much today and back to my topic, we were hot and had to take a bathroom break. This employee came around with the dinosaur puppet things (they are so realistic) and the kids just loved it. She answered questions, let them pet and it was just really a great break. We sure timed that just right.
This poor guy looks like he has some type of a disease and his tail is falling off.
We made it about 3/4 of the way and we stopped for a nice refreshing drink.
We ended up with about an hour at the museum. I think it was just the right amount of time. Ambur and I sat down (my legs were telling me enough) and we watched as they ran and jumped and climbed and hid from one another and they just had a great time.
This is not in order that it happened, but at one point we were walking from building to building and we came across a really cool glass blowing school. We got to go inside and watch them blow glass and it was really interesting. then we went on to go to the next location and although we took the long way around, we got some great pictures.
The food at Black Bear Diner was great and we had a really great time at dinner. There was so much talk about what they enjoyed during the day and it was a blessing to be able to just hear them talking about it. These 'sleepover's' are pretty expensive but every penny is worth it when you get to see the glow in the eyes and the smiles with exhausted bodies because they have had so much fun for the day. The memories we build on these trips, I never forget. I just love it. One of my favorite things--after the butterflies because that was my favorite--was all the beautiful plants. I took a TON of pictures and decided just to put them here at the end, that way they don't get in the way of the activities of the blog.
We had the best day today. It was just so fun and busy all day long people found something they liked to do. It was just a perfect day and much more involved than I thought it would. I go to bed tonight a very happy Grandma with a lot of love all around.
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