Diving Deep and Flying High

On the coldest day of the winter, while Denver was breaking low temperature records (-11), the Heinemans and Hamiltons went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

The Museum had a special whale exhibit that we all loved and learned a ton from.  There were signs everywhere that said "no photography".  Does that mean professional photography or no shooting from the hip?  Literally, from the hip with the camera that's hanging over your shoulder.  I'm here to tell you, that means shooting from the hip is a no-no as well.  I may have tried a few shots and mid-way through, a woman appeared out of nowhere to remind me that there was no photography.  I'm pretty sure that security had their eye on me and my fancy hip shooting.  I desperately wanted to ask someone "why" we couldn't' take photos of our adorable kids exploring whales, but I let it go.

We did learn many things like that whales evolves from four legged creatures and they still have remnants of all four legs, the only large whale with teeth is the Sperm whale and their teeth are only on the bottom row, all other large whales have baleen, the hippo is the only living relative of the whale and a blue whale is as big as 55 elephants.  That's a lot of elephant.

Scuba divers Oliver, Owen and Oliver

Oliver, Owen, Kellan and Eric

Owen, Carrie, Kellan and Jennie

Oliver

After the whale exhibit and some lunch we went to explore space.

As always, the sand and erosion in Mars is a big hit with the boys.

Owen, Kellan and Oliver amongst other random kids.

Owen, Kellan and Oliver

Kellan wasn't so sure of the sand on his hands.  He was ready to wash up after only a few minutes.

I can't believe how big our boys are getting.

Next up was some more sand digging.  This time, they were searching for metal with a metal detector.

Kellan tried his hand at landing a space craft.

It's much harder than it looks.

We'll just settle with successful parallel parking of the family car and call it a day.

As luck would have it, the boys picked up a science demonstration and had front row seats where they learned all about the properties of liquid nitrogen.

Yes, these boys LOVE science and completely comprehend it!

Oliver and Owen are the only ones who have been in the planetarium and that was with Primrose.  We took advantage of the opportunity and picked up some $3 seats for the 20 minute show.  We learned a lot about all of the planets in the solar system and we were glad to see that they have reinstated Pluto as a planet.  I should have asked the planet guy what happened to Pluto for him to be kicked off of the planet list, only to make it back on.  Maybe I'll turn to Google for that.

We also learned that Venus is the hottest planet at 900 degrees, the rings around Saturn are made of rocks, dust and ice particles (I had no idea), there was once water on Mars but now it is all frozen below the surface and Neptune has seasons that are 40 years long (Egads!).

Kellan, Oliver, Owen and Owen's Aunt Nancy

A fraction of the screen before the show began.  The screen was huge and all around us (so it seemed).  Some of us adults had a hard time with motion sickness (myself included) while watching the show, but the boys didn't seem to notice at all.  Another perk of being a whipper snapper.

Owen invited the boys over to play, but we have had some very busy days so an afternoon of R&R was in order.

While Mommy took down the Christmas decorations, the boys brushed up on their knowledge of Night at the Museum with Night at the Museum 2.  We have promised them a date night for the family to see Night at the Museum 3.  I think they're officially ready.  Now, to find some time.

What a fantastic day we had.  We all loved it!

We wish that Daddy could have joined us be he was on a business trip in Utah.

THANK YOU to the Heinemans for letting us tag along on your family outing and on your super pass for entrance.

THANK YOU to Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Jeff for the great coordinating sweaters that you go the boys for Christmas.  Not only are they awesome colors (GO BRONCOS) but they sure were handy for finding the boys in the crowd.  I may have been heard saying, "where are my stripes?  I'm looking for my stripes."