Butterfly Pavillion

When Scot and I were first married I was new to the area so we would always try to go out and see something new every weekend. I think we soon realized that we weren't going to be able to afford that...but it was fun while it lasted! One of the first weekends after we got married we drove to Denver and walked around the Butterfly Pavillion in Westminster. We had a blast spending the day exploring!

Scot with a tarantula! I wouldn't get near that thing! Yikes!

Sea Life!

A little butterfly in the bushes!

One landed on Scot's finger! I don't know why but that FREAKS me out. I did not want any of them landing on me! Most people would love it but for some reason...not me!

I think some of my fear of butterfly habitats comes from when I was a kid. There was this place called Marine World in Vallejo, California and we would go there when I was a kid and I just remember that one time we had gone in to the Butterfly Pavillion that they have. When you go to walk out they have these big plastic flaps in front of the doors, I am guessing to keep the butterflies inside when people leave and I was happily skipping along and ran through those flaps and was pretty happy about it until I realized that some nasty little kid had BARFED all over the flaps! Sooooo gross! So now every time I am in a butterfly place I think of that...and now you will too.

Monarch Ski Resort + Jenny on Skis = NEVER happening again!

Soooo this is the longest over due post EVER in the history of over due posts! What is wrong with me? I guess we've just had a lot going on the last few months and just haven't thought about blogging...so here it is...

Anyway so I mentioned in my last post that I was going to try out skiing. Scot LOVES to ski and has been asking me to go skiing with him probably since before we got married but I've always just sort of dodged the subject. I decided that after 5 years of marriage and 2 1/2 years of dating it was finally time to bite the bullet and just get it done all in the name of love. Everyone kept saying Monarch is so easy, it's a great place to learn and it's never busy. Uhmmmm...OK. We pulled up and I was like "WHAT IS THAT GIGANTIC MOUNTAIN?" Scot was like "It's nothing, it's nothing. That's not steep..." Uhmmmm OK...suuuure, whatever you say! So I strapped in to my boots, against my better judgement and slowly and akwardly trudged through the parking lot to meet the instructor for my lesson (Scot was ahead of me trying to get our lift tickets because we were running late and don't even think for a second that I didn't consider just running back to the car and hiding while he wasn't looking). After we paid and were all squared away we got to the meeting place and met the instructor and the three other people in my class. I will say 2 things: one is that one of the other people in my class left after about 20 minutes. One minute he was there on his butt with the rest of us and the next he had taken off his other ski and just started walking down the mountain without saying a word. I wanted to run after him and say TAKE ME WITH YOU! But I didn't...I figured that would be sort of creeper of me so I decided to go ahead and stick it out through the lesson... Two is that does anyone realize how stinking hard it is to get up after you fall down? I couldn't believe it. I nearly busted a gut trying to get up those 641 times...

Had I known how dumb I looked I would have left the camera at home. It's ok though, now I have proof that I did it and I tried and that I was there. So after the 2 hour lesson from Hades Scot found me stuggling to get the skis off with tears running down my face. I was DONE, DONE and DONE. He helped me take the skis off and we went in to the lodge and had some lunch and hot chocolate (I was in heaven). I told Scot that I would be sad if he didn't go back out and ski for another couple hours but that I think I had had enough adventure for the day so he did and luckily I brought my trusty book (just in case) and I got to sit in the lodge by the fire and a window and read and people watch. I LOVED it...until the little girl at the table next to me puked all over the floor (lots of people get altitude sickness)...that, not so much fun. Anyhoosie, here is what Scot did...

All in all, despite the DRAMA RAMA (all me) it was a really fun day with my hubby and I'm glad I did it. I have now confirmed my fear of adventure, my dislike for being cold and wet and my unappreciativeness (today this is a word) for speed and danger.

Also, here is my PSA for this sport WEAR A HELMET, no joke. I feel like it is essential. They make really cute ones that can match all your gear and I think everyone needs one. Anyway...just sayin'.

Love you all and I plan to be more exciting and have things to post about in the future!

Daycation

Yesterday Scot and I went on a little daycation. A few weeks ago we decided to go up to Breckenridge for their Snow Sculpture competition. We had never been before but had heard really great things about it so I really want to go and check it out! It was such a fun day, we just wish we had been able to stay there a little bit longer than a few hours! Here are pictures from the day...

As we were pulling in to town we saw these wind surfers! They are wind surfing on ice and snowboards! We thought this was really cool.

I kept telling Scot we were going to see ice sculptures but they were really snow sculptures. These were the only ice sculptures they had but they were still really cool!

This sculptures was created by a team from Mexico. This was one of Scot's favorites! Here it is from the front...

And from the back...

A couple more that weren't our favorites but still very impressive...Each sculpture starts out as a 20 ton block of snow that is created from snow from the ski resort.

The Polar Bear was one of our favorites!

Here is the lady from the front. She even has a comb in her hair.

Here she is from the back.

The one behind us is a man playing a violin but as you can see, we are blocking him. Whoops.
Overlooking all the sculptures...

Part of the ski resort and a sign that says thin ice, do not cross. Clearly people listened and decided to walk across the ice anyway! Duh!!

After we walked around downtown and ate dinner at the "Pizza Parlor" in this really cool old victorian house we went back to see the sculptures all lit up at night. They looked really beautiful in the light and it was a lot easier to see the details...

We really liked this one obviously!
On the way back to the car we stopped at a little cafe and bought chocolate chip oatmeal and peanut butter cookies with hot chocolate to drive home with! Yum! The perfect ending to a really fun day!

I think our next daycation is going to be skiing. I'M SCARED! Stay tuned for how that goes in a couple weeks!