Thankful Day 8

There are a lot of things to be Thankful for living in this area. And one that we continue to always be Thankful for is our ability to go on such great adventures and spend time in some amazing museums. Yesterday we decided to go and visit the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum!

First stop - the metro. Checking out the "snow pushers" that are getting ready for the winter. Anything looking somewhat like construction equipment is a big hit!

 The metro by myself with two kids is always an adventure. Add in some "track problems" on the red line that caused quite a backlog all morning, and it makes for a little bit of a stressful experience. Once we got off the train it was time for a quick snack before we go exploring!

Although all the bones are interesting, the dioramas are what really interest Parker.

 Hands-on display of fossils, dinosaur teeth, and footprints!

 Time for a quick stop by the fish tanks. We love all the fish - especially the Nemo and Dory ones!

On this adventure we did something extra special - went inside the butterfly room. They have over 50 different species of butterflies flying all over the large, hot, humid room.
We had to make sure we didn't step on any butterflies...
But we got to watch some eat fruit nectar from melons and pineapple.

Parker kept asking me if all the butterflies were real - they are. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Everywhere. Landing on you. Flying by your head. Have I mentioned I don't like bugs? Especially flying ones. But it was really interesting, and some were really pretty.

Parker really liked the ones that would land on the floor or on the rocks and just stay still flapping their wings. He would blow on them a bit to make their wings move...

Out of the butterfly room and playing by the mammal skeletons. Riley was happy to be out of the buggy and climbing around. I keep telling her if she only would learn to walk she wouldn't have to hang out in the BOB all the time!

It was a great adventure topped off with a great lunch date with Daddy. As always, you could spend hours in any of these museums and never feel like you saw everything. I am sure we will be back many more times. So I am also Thankful that admission is free!