07_07_2014 Rock Gym, Butterfly House and Mom's Dinner

After breakfast, we headed to the rock gym.  We got the girls harnessed and shoed. Dave checked the sturdiness of Zoe's harness. Looks like it'll work and she'll live to see another day!

Here is a photo of Hannah heading up a route. You can see Dave, Callie and Zoe at the base.

We were plenty entertained at the base as Zoe and Dave compared muscles and fierce looks.

Dave climbed the crack next to Hannah. Here the are at the top. Mom is in the upstairs portion of the gym so she was able to get this photo at almost eye-level.

Here is Zoe topping out as well.

Everyone climbed until tired...and until a lot of food-talk was going on. We headed home for more turkey sandwiches. Really they were pickle sandwiches with some turkey on them. Very good!

Then we went to somewhere new. It was all of our first time to the Butterfly House in Broomfield.

It's a great place! (And these photos loaded in reverse order...shakes fist at this crudy software).  One begins in the 'crawlaseeum' where you can get the heeby jeebies by lots of digusting things with exoskeletons.  Bleck.

Then you move to the sea life section where there were very cool sea animals. It was at times equally fascinating and disgusting. Better than the Giant South American Cockroach display in the earlier section however.

And finally, to the butterfly part of the exhibit.

Here you can see that Zoe was the butterfly whisperer in the butterfly house. This particular butterfly was enamored by her!

Entering the gross part.

Hannah allowed Rosie the Tarantula to crawl on her. The rest of us would have done the same but the line was REALLY long. :)

Lots of walking sticks. These are not gross. Pretty cool critters really.

Yeah, these photos are in crazy order. Here we are in the butterfly section. Zoe is checking out how these butterflies are using their proboscis (probasci?) to each fruit.

The gift shop offered lots of fun. Here is mom with a bug face on.

And Callie and Zoe with bug faces

One can touch sea stars in this exhibit. One was soft and leathery, the other was hard. Not super gross at all.

Yeah, this is gross. Not sure what it is about Horseshoe Crabs, but they TOTALLY creep me out. I can't even look at this photo without the creeps spreading over me. One could touch each of these. Bleck.

Some very cool sea life

In the butterfly house, you can watch them hatch out of their ...crud, I forgot what it's called. Not cocoon, but I think you know what I mean.  One like this landed on my nose. It stayed only a second so there is no photo.

We got to watch a bunch of butterflies take their first flight.  

Zoe's friend. We had to eventually have a Handler remove this friendly butterfly from her!

This was my favorite butterfly. We watched it take its first flight then it landed near us. You can't tell its size, but it was LARGE.  It is found in another country and currently endangered. Be sad for it to become extinct.

Butterfly lifecycle

Outside was an irresistible praying mantis...well really there were three.

And some butterflies too

We got home and Chef Mom prepared some dinner. On the menu was feta and spinach stuff chicken breasts, green beans with mushroom and bacon, and sweet potatoes. good stuff.