Denver Butterfly Pavilion

We got a chance to go to the Denver Butterfly Pavilion this past week.  It reminded me of a butterfly park in Okinawa we went to.  Anna and Matthew were terrified of the butterflies there so I was a little apprehensive about this visit.  They are older now and things went a lot better.  Here they are posing outside the pavilion.

 

 Here's Anna by a large praying mantis (is that what that is?)

We have big bugs in Colorado.

Inside the pavilion the kids got to see some new butterflies being released.  We also got to see some butterfly eggs on some leaves there.  There weren't as many butterflies her (as in Okinawa) and they weren't as quick to land on us, but there were more varieties.

Checking out some butterflies in the leaves.  I see two in this picture, both blackish, but you have to look close.  One has its wings closed so its harder to see.

 It was warm in there and the kids had fun just running around.

 They all got pink faced and sweaty, but still had fun

 Johnny had fun too

 Grant stalked this butterfly for a while.

 

 And we also got to hold a tarantula named Rosie

 Scott was very enthusiastic about me holding Rosie, but didn't want to hold it himself.  ;)

He's not the biggest spider fan.

 Anna didn't want to at first, but changed her mind when she saw me hold him.  She was brave.

 Posing

 

 More posing

Matthew really liked this little beehive with a bee counter that showed how many times bees had left the hive that day.  Is that accounting?

 Grant found some fun things to climb on

We found this spider web and Anna really wanted to climb it but a bunch of big kids were on it.

I told her to just get in there, but she was still hesitant.  Finally she went for it.  There was a grandpa there watching his grandson who was watching all of this unfold and gave out a big "ATTA GIRL!" for Anna when she finally started climbing.

Here she is climbing

 

Her goal was to get up on the top and sit up there like she saw some of the older kids do...and she made it!  I spotted her a little bit on the way down.

Anyway, we all had fun.  I liked seeing and petting a real horseshoe crab there.  That was cool.  And we all liked the butterflies.