We didn't FULLY depend on the DVD player for this trip. We had some good old fashioned car ride fun! She loved these books that had the shadows of a character that you had to match with the character!
We saw a few of these HUGE windmills out in western Kansas. Jesstine even pointed them out on the way back!
She got to be SO tired, but just would not fall asleep.
Instead, she took to hiding under her blanket!
First glimpse of the mountains.
A little bit closer!
On our first day in Denver, we took a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Stephen had gone there many times as a kid and thought Jesstine would like it. We hyped up the dinosaurs because she LOVES dinosaurs right now! Turns out she loved the whole thing! She talks more about the space part (which at the time she didn't seem to have much interest in) than anything else!
I thought this was cool. It was over the escalators and stairways. It is a Fin Whale. It is the second largest of the whales (the first being the blue whale). What was interesting is that I had just heard about this whale in a news link online! They are elusive most of the time, but recently off of the coast of California some whale sight seers were out looking for whales. This type of whale came right up to their boat and did barrel rolls! The footage was so cool!
The museum happened to be having an IMAX pirate show going on. We chose to decline though. Was fun looking through the pirate stuff since Jesstine is all about having a pirate party for her birthday this year.
Daddy trying on deer ears.
Jesstine's turn, even if they are upside down!
There were these displays with lifelike animals in lifelike habitats. Also one of Jesstine's favorite things! This picture doesn't do this one justice! It really looked like you were looking at these manatees in the zoo, in the water behind the glass. Only, they weren't moving!
Jesstine with moose antlers!
This is some sort of prehistoric fish. It just looked cool!
She can ALMOST see the dinosaurs. She is SUPER excited at this point!
This is what Kansas is believed to have looked like in the prehistoric age.
Almost looks like a dinosaur, but not quite there yet!
And the moment she had been waiting for...to the dinosaurs, Jesstine!
"Look at that one, Daddy!!!!"
An Allosaurus and a stegosaurus fighting.
For those of you who remember the movie, "The Land Before Time," which I just introduced to Jesstine, this is Ducky's mommy.
And this is Ducky!
Two cool things about this fish fossil. It was discovered in Kansas for one. Secondly, it looked as though it had just had lunch because you can see the bones of something else inside of it!
Post dinosaur bull creature! This is the creature you have nightmares about!
Mammoth!
Time for a snack.
When we were coming down to have a snack, Jesstine kept pointing to this saying, "Mommy look, it's a dinosaur!" Later when I went to take her picture by it, she said, "Daddy said it's not a dinosaur. It's not a dinosaur, Mommy. It is a mastodon!"
The stamp she got when we re-entered the museum after a snack. The man was going to give her a butterfly stamp, but we said she would LOVE a dinosaur since that was what she was most excited about seeing at the museum!
Look for more soon in Part 2!! It will include the last part of the museum pictures as well as the last part of our vacation!
In Him,
The Hutchins'
