Mini-Road Trip

I don't know about anyone else, but there is nothing that does the soul more good than a road trip.  I know there are many for whom traveling with 5 children would NOT necessarily be considered "soul time", but for me it always is, and now even more so.  Maybe it is moving out of homeschooling mode and more fully into just plain old Mom mode for awhile that does it, or perhaps it is the long drive necessitated by where we live that gets me into the mood, I am not really sure.  Whatever the cause, it is a deep pleasure to go places with the kids, and not something I dread at all...we have a blast when we go places, even if it wouldn't excite anyone else!

I am writing you from a hotel room in Denver, not an exciting destination, but still we are out of Dodge for awhile.  We came to see our friends from Las Vegas who are here visiting, and to complete our year science study by topping it off with a a trip to the Butterfly Pavilion, a very cool zoo/museum sort of place filled to the brim with bugs!

Yes, we have an extra child thrown in for good measure, and he looks like he fits, doesn't he?  The kids had fun holding tarantulas (guess which two were willing?), chasing butterflies, and looking for camouflaged insects. 

These photos were taken with my new phone camera, and I am semi-pleased but need to work better with the white balance, as it is a bit rough aroiund the edges.  I am SUCH a camera snob!  Still, it was nice to have one with me when my camera battery didn't hold a charge.  Shutter speed was predictibly slow, which is my big annoyance factor with every digital camera that is not an SLR.  Kids move too fast and you need a fast shutter speed to catch them before they are on to something else!  Overall though, these weren't half bad.

Funnily, I think the biggest hit of the day was NOT the Butterfly Pavilion, but instead was the outdoor flea market we hit earlier in the morning!  This was reminiscent of the huge one held at the Rose Bowl in California, but was not very busy on a Friday morning.  The kids acted as if they were...well...kids in a candy factory as they ran from one booth to another checking out the bargains.  This will definitely have to be on our "must see" list when we come back to Denver in the future.  The Big Finds of the day werecollector Lego guys (Of course!) and a pair of skis for Joshie for $5...he totally scored.  The kids all were carefully calculating how much they could spend of their money that they have been saving, and it's great to see them beginning to think ahead and be wise with their cash.

It has been wonderful to visit with our friends, who we wish lived closer so we could visit them more often.  Now I am waiting for kids to get moving so we can get back on the road to get home before it gets too late tonight.

I'll try and catch up on blogging this next week, lots of thoughts running through my head, none of which are all that profound :-)