Butterflies & Chihuly

We had such a FUN FRIDAY when we took
Miriam, Emma, & Sydney to the Desert Botanical
Garden to see the Spring Butterfly Exhibit & also
the Chihuly Exhibit. They were both WONDERFUL!
We started out with the butterflies- there is a double
door entrance & exit to make sure no rebellious
butterflies escape. The girls were so patient to sit as
still as statues to see if a butterfly would land on them.
They had even spent time picking the right colors to
wear. Miriam did have a butterfly land on her shoe!
Emma was our butterfly expert & had studied up on
interesting facts- did you know how butterflies taste?
Through their feet! The girls also used a tic tac toe game
to help identify the butterflies.










If you look closely above Emma's head,
you can see a beautiful black & yellow
butterfly- there were only 2 in the whole
exhibit!













Later we saw the biggest butterfly of
all; it was named the Miriam Butterfly!













Next we walked (and walked...
and walked) to see the Chihuly
Exhibit throughout the Gardens.
Each of us picked their favorite
piece of glass art- here is Sydney's.













This is the "Blue & Purple Boat"-
Dad's favorite piece. We all thought
it looked like hands grasping out of the
boat. To give an idea of the value of this
one piece, it is insured for half a million
dollars! When the Chihuly Exhibit travels
to the next place, it takes 5 semi-trucks to
transport & each glass piece is dismantled
& wrapped separately.

Here we all are in front of "The Sun"
with our Phoenix sun beating down on
us! It was up to 103 & we only survived
because we each wore the cooler neck bands
Carole made for one reunion! Thank you Carole!!!













After spending about 3 hours at the
Garden, we took the girls to "Mickey D's"
for dinner- the girls didn't think they had
ever been to this "new" place to eat...until
they saw the golden arches. Dad did the
traditional "You get $3 to spend on whatever
you want for dinner" so Sydney picked a
Happy Meal. Dad had found butterfly nets
to give each girl which they used right after
they got home to catch crickets! You would
think that the fun ended there, but dad took
me back to the Chihuly Exhibit so we could see
them lit up. It was close to 9 pm so most people
were leaving & we were able to just walk right
back in & spend another 1/2 hour appreciating
how absolutely beautiful this art is! You saw
"The Sun" in the daylight- here it is lit up at
night. And also the Desert Wildflower Towers
that were right at the entrance! Only one word
to describe all of this- GORGEOUS!!!!

You can look at our trip slide show to see more pictures
of us with the butterflies & lots more pictures of the
Chihuly exhibit.)