New Car!

A new car for us! Wade has been driving the Yukon while he and Delwyn work on his Explorer. Swimming has started for Ryan and it's challenging to pick up Dagny from preschool and get Ryan to practice on time. We will need another car when Britta gets home from her mission and goes to school, so we decided to get one now.

We love Escapes, we've had 3 of them so far, and a Mariner is the same type of car made by another company. This one doesn't have 4 wheel drive, but we feel like you only need 4 wheel drive a few times a year and on those days we just won't drive this car.

It has leather seats and is quite fancy inside.

Ryan will drive this car and he is pretty excited!

Butterfly Pavillion

Melissa wanted to go to the Butterfly Pavilion during Spring Break. It's a fun place and I thought it was a great idea. All the kids held Rosie and weren't scared at all. Melissa thought maybe Claire should go first because she is the oldest and would be the bravest. There were a few people in front of us in line and we watched them. When it was our turn, Dagny just jumped up on the stool first and was excited to hold that big spider. She wasn't scared at all.

Lincoln was right behind Dagny and went next. You can see Claire waiting in the background. The joke was on Melissa and I for thinking the younger kids might be scared, they loved it. The sign said you have to be 3 years old to hold Rosie. Lincoln has 2 more months, but we sneaked him in anyway because he wanted to have a turn.

Claire's turn. The spider is soft and kind of tickles when it walks on your hand, but I wouldn't want the job of helping kids to hold it. I have held Rosie before, I didn't today since there was so many of us. I can hold her for a few seconds, but that's it for me. Rosie is big and creepy. I might have nightmares if I had to hold her all day. The worker always holds onto your hand so you won't drop her.

Finally Millie's turn.

A big smile and a big spider.

It's always fun to watch the bees, they are so busy swarming around.

You can see the bees going outside through the tube. They have added the bee counter since we were here last that tells you have many bees have gone outside for the day.

Getting ready to look at all the spiders, beetles, and crawling things that are in the display cases.

Claire said, "Wow, look at this!"

And the other girls all copied her. They are so cute and fun when they are together.

Maddie loved the fish.  Austin has a salt water tank, so she's used to all the bright colors.

I love the fish too. This one is so unusual.

At this exhibit people are allowed to touch starfish and other water creatures.

We are ready to go in to the butterfly room!

Claire is such a good big sister! She always helps Maddie to be a part of things we are doing.

One of the first butterflies we saw was this one. Such vibrant colors!

I'm not sure, but I think these are a kind of moth.

We walked around for awhile and then the kids wanted to take a break and sit on this bench. I have the cutest grandkids ever.

There are some beautiful flowers in here!

There is a little pond area with some cute little turtles.

It's fun to watch the butterflies eat.

The butterflies loved Melissa today. One landed on her back,

and it's hard to see because of the light, but one flew right into her hand. Maybe they liked her blue shirt.

The girls took another break to sit on some rocks.

I love it when they hold hands! Cousins make the best friends!

Whenever I think of a butterfly, these are the colors that I think of.

They have added a whole new play section since the last time we were here. The kids loved it so much, we spent as much time in this area as we did looking at the butterflies, insects, and fish. There was a cute camper,

and a canoe with life jackets. There was a campfire toy with marshmallows and sticks. It was so cute and the kids loved it. 

The slide was probably Lincoln's favorite thing.

Every kid likes to play and climb on the rocks.

There was an area with dirt and worms and Millie dug out a worm!

We had a great day at the Butterfly Pavilion! I'm so glad Melissa suggested it.

March Snow Storm is a Bomb Cyclone

A bomb cyclone? I had never heard that term before this storm. It's when the barometric pressure drops rapidly and it's called a bomb because it's an explosive storm that comes on quickly. The lower the pressure gets, the stronger the storm will be. We got about 6 inches of snow and had wind gusts that are equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane at 60 to 80 miles per hour. It was the strongest storm ever recorded in Colorado's history. We heard on the news that everything in Castle Rock was shut down, stores, restaurants, and gas stations. You can see the drifts of snow were pretty significant.

 

It was a team effort with Delwyn and Ryan both

shoveling to dig us out.

The Volesky's were using their snow blower and when they were done, they offered to let us use it.

   

So nice of them! Things went a lot faster after that.

This is the house directly across from us. That's a lot of icicles! The storm started out as rain and the snow was really wet and heavy.

A lot of drifts in the back yard too. You could see patches of grass in some places, yet the snow was pretty deep along the fence.

The gas meter was almost buried.

Snow and ice were pushed up against the patio door. It was crazy!

Landon and Megan both worked from home today. They brought their work computers home knowing that the forecast was calling for blizzard conditions. He brought Dagny and Lincoln over here in the morning with their pajamas just in case he couldn't make it back to get them, and it was a good thing. It started snowing about 9 am and by 4:30 pm we were right in the middle of this big storm. The wind was blowing really hard and the snow was piling up. Delwyn was back by 11 am, and Village Inn closed at 2 pm. You know it's a major storm when Village Inn closes! I kept the kids overnight. We all decided it would be better to just keep them here rather than risk coming to get them and getting in an accident or slipping off the road. I'm thankful we were all safe during this crazy storm!