I have this week off of work, so Blanden and I are making the absolute most of our last week home together. With much thanks to a friend of ours who loaned us her pass, we enjoyed a fun-filled morning at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I admit, I thought we were going mostly for me to see the exhibits and for Blanden to get out of the house, but he loved it! (Regrettably, however, I didn't bring my camera! So none of these photos are ours or of Blanden, but I had to post something.)
The museum is well known for its permanent Prehistoric Journey dinosaur exhibit.
Blanden was fascinated by these giant guys, and kept saying, "wow!" He got to pet a
trilobite replica and various other fossils.
We also took a trip through Space Odyssey. We traveled to Mars and saw the moon and the earth from afar.
Blanden's favorite, however, was Tykes Peak, which sadly I could not find a picture of online. He scrambled up and down a mini mountain many times and loved going down the slide and crawling through a tree trunk. And he played with these pegs for a long time. He also sat through a ten-minute movie about climbing to the top of a real Colorado peak in which
faux wind and snow and the sound of a human heartbeat circulated throughout the room, accompanied by a light show. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it all, but he was definitely curious, and not scared as I feared he might be.
Afterward, since our tickets were free, we treated ourselves to pizza for lunch on the way home, one of
Blanden's favorites. (Plus, I promised him pizza for dinner last night and accidentally left it in the oven too long so it wasn't very good.)
Blanden fell asleep in the car and actually stayed asleep as I carried him to bed -- that rarely happens at night, and I've never known it to happen in the middle of the afternoon!
Checking out the dinosaurs, definitely a highlight.
Dad captured a photo of Blanden at the top of Tykes Peak...
And sliding down. 
Playing with puzzles in the Discovery Zone for kids, which we didn't get to on Tuesday.
Even at the museum, Blanden found a favorite!
A tornado demonstration: what happens when debris travels at 300 miles per hour -- in this case a pencil splitting wood. Our long weekend is off to a great start! Happy New Year's Eve!
