Saturday we woke up and headed for the Butterfly Pavilion. My friend Jodi had told me about going to this place when she was a kid and she loved it. So of course I wanted to check it out. What I didn't realize, until our Denver arrival, was that it was off of the same exit as our hotel and located just a mile away. At first none of the boys wanted to go. They all wanted to sleep; I mean it was only 11:00am! Finally Carsen decided to wake up and come with us, so we left Jake and Derek sleeping at the hotel. Just as we pulled into the parking lot Jake called my phone and had decided that he too wanted to go, so we drove back and picked him up.
The pavilion was really cool. There were more than just butterflies. We were able to see this awesome bee hive.
The bees came in and out through this tube, which counted them each day. There were little doors at different heights that you could open to hear the bees working. It was pretty neat to be able to listen and watch them work and not be in any danger.
Carsen was super brave and held Rosie the tarantula. I was having a small panic attack, just for being close enough to take a picture!
We went through a neat obstacle course that taught about butterflies in the wild and butterfly farms. Jake got caught in the spider web, he must have been one of the wild butterflies.
After we finished the educational rooms, we headed out into the green house, the butterflies' home.
I guess I was wearing the right color, because I had several butterflies land on me. I was a bit freaked out at first, but I did calm down.
Until I had butterflies on both shoulders at the same time! If you look carefully, you can see that Carsen really wasn't a fan of the flying creatures. He exited out the doors behind us as soon as he could! He can hold a snake and a tarantula, but not a butterfly?
Jake, on the other hand, absolutely loved the butterflies. He waited patiently and held many different butterflies and moths.
There were literally more than 100 different types of butterflies and moths. They were all so beautiful and unique.
Sydney and I had a hard time choosing our favorite. We did each get a butterfly magnet for the fridge. Jake picked some dumb bug toy and Carsen is smart and pocketed his cash.
After we left the butterflies, we picked up Derek and headed into down town Denver. We drove around for a little bit looking at the Capital building and the US Mint. I wanted so badly to take Carsen on a tour there, but when I trying to reserve it in May, everything was taken until September. That was a huge disappointment for me.
Once we had finished our driving tour, and taken a few u-turns & circles around the blocks, we found a parking meter at one end of the 16th Street Mal. We gathered all our change and started to walk. We were all starving so we decided to be take a chance with the ever popular Hard Rock Café. My picky eaters (Carsen & Jake) didn't fill up, but the rest of us enjoyed our meal and the fun atmosphere.
After lunch we ventured in and out of lots of little shops looking for the perfect souvenir from the city. Once everyone was content, we headed back to the car.
My plan was to drive a few blocks over toward the baseball field. I had read about a cool baseball museum that is only open a couple hours before a home game. So I figured out all the one way streets and traffic and made it to the ball field. As we were driving we saw people walking from blocks away. I didn't want to get mugged or lost, so I kept driving. The closest lot right across the street from the field was $30. I had a heart attack and decided to circle the block to find something a little cheaper, but still relatively close. As I circled I noticed that the lots that were blocks away were still $20-$25. If I was gonna pay $25, I might as well pay $30 and be close. So despite the fact that I had to back the Honda into a very small spot, in a very small lot, I did it!
I told the boys we were going to walk and find the museum and they decided that they would rather go and watch the Rockies batting practice and warm-ups before the game. We had a good amount of time to kill so kids & adults started getting up and going to find snacks.
That didn't end when the game started everyone was in and out of their seats. We were in the middle of a row and I wasn't about to move, no matter what! Sydney on the other hand didn't mind a bit so I sent her to get me a drink. While Sydney was gone to get me a drink, she accidentally set down her cell phone and left it on the vendor's counter. Once she returned with my drink, she realized she didn't have it and had a small freak out. Within a few minutes she got up again and retraced her steps to find it. She did indeed find it at the lemonade stand.
While Sydney was freaking out about her phone, I was watching the huge black clouds roll in. About the 6th inning it started to sprinkle. Being from Arizona, I figured it would sprinkle for a little while and then move on. Boy was I wrong. The rain continued to fall for that inning and into the next. Not only did it continue, it came down harder and harder and harder. The fans throughout the stadium had slowly opened up their umbrellas or taken cover in the stadium breezeway. Others had jackets with hoods, hats and even ponchos, but not the 5 fans from Arizona. We sat there until we were good and wet and then hurried for an exit when we realized the rain was not stopping any time soon.
At the top of our section we all had to hold on to one another as we entered a mob of people. I had Sydney go first, since she was the tallest. I brought up the rear so I could make sure no one fell off our little train. Sydney bravely stepped into the sea of people, but when she did, she accidentally cut off an old man. The man began to cuss at her try to hit her with his cane. I was shocked and asked the man what he was doing. He told me all about how she had cut him off and he was going to make sure that never happened again! We exchanged words back and forth, his were pretty colorful. He then began to lash out at me. I told him that I felt sorry for him that his life had been so awful. After that he told his wife to stop walking and we continued to walk to our exit.
We got a few pictures by the gate before we left and as I turned to start walking into the down pour, all I could think about was how grateful I was that we had paid the high premium to park so close!
Once we got into the car I plugged in the Garmin and selected our hotel, or so I thought. We got onto the freeway and began to drive, following the little voice's directions. As we drove the rain came down harder and harder. The freeway had NO lights on it and I don't think I could see the front of my car. The wipers were going as fast as they could and it made no difference. The lanes on the freeway were now holding water so it was like driving through a shallow pond. I couldn't do anything but continue to drive, very slowly, the direction that the Garmin was telling me. I didn't even have time to be scared because I couldn't lose focus for one second.
As we finally exited the freeway, I realized that we were not anywhere near where we should have been. I had selected the address for the museum in Morrison, about 30 minutes from our hotel in Westminster. With nothing to do but drive, we selected the correct address and finally found our way to the hotel.
Knowing that I absolutely did not ever want to drive in rain like that again, we looked at the forecast for the next few days. Heavy rains were predicted in Colorado Springs, which is where we were supposed to spend the next day. Heavy rains were also expected in Rocky Mountain National Park, which could have served as a backup plan. So, after weighing all the information, we decided to drive like heck to the black hills of South Dakota.
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