Dinosaurs and Butterflies

Nate's preschool had a "field trip" to the Natural Museum last week.  We got to see both the dinosaur exhibit and the butterfly exhibit.  I hadn't seen the dinosaurs since Michael was in a stroller, and the new display was really fantastic.

 This is a slice of petrified wood.

 They had the coolest wooly mammoth that was fighting with a human....

 Just after this spot, they had several displays of the skeletons they have found that show the evolution of man.  There was nearby a display with a modern skeleton and a chimpanzee skeleton.  There was a museum employee that was standing near that display talking about the differences between humans and chimpanzees.  He then proceeded to explain that we don't know where man came from, but it wasn't from the chimps because the skeletons are too different and man cannot have evolved from chimps. 

 Next we went to the butterfly area.  They have a great display with lots of bugs and live bugs and tons of butterflies that are pinned so you can see them.  They also have a large display of chysalis's that are in the process of hatching into butterflies, sometimes you can actually watch it happen.

Once we got in the butterfly garden area, Nate REALLY wanted to have a butterfly land on him.  He found one that was perched on something and he coaxed it to climb up on his arm. He really enjoyed that.  He never did get one to land on him.

Spring Break Camping

We went camping with some friends at the beginning of Spring Break.  We were originally really excited to go camping, but at the weekend came closer the weather seemed a little daunting.  It did not disappoint- the first night we were camping it poured rain all night and the wind blew with gusts above 30-40 mph.  We laid in our little tent listening to the rain and watching the tent blow way down until it was only a few inches from our faces.  Partway through the storm, the wind changed direction and then it came at us from the other direction.  At one point, it was so bad and there were starting to be some drops coming in from outside, so we looked on Joe's phone and saw that the whole storm was supposed to pass in 1/2 an hour.  We laid in our sleeping bags and watched the tent barely hold up around us and counted the minutes.  Finally, the storm passed, and we quickly fell back asleep.  Luckily, Nate and Adam slept through it all, but Ellie and Michael did not fare as well. 

 

The next morning, there were several families at the campsite that had all of their belongings completely soaked.  We were glad that that was not us!

The kids really enjoyed going down to the lake (we camped really close to the shore) and playing in the sand and the water.  It was pretty cold even when it wasn't raining, but they still didn't mind getting their feet and legs wet in the water.  I kept thinking about how cold I was, but it was SO nice to visit with friends, and the kids really enjoyed themselves, so it definitely outweighed the coldness.

We brought our bikes, and the kids really enjoyed riding them around and going on the nearby trails with friends.

It hard to see, but Adam is throwing a ball to Joe.