DMNS free day

Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) had a free day last month.  After going 2 1/2 years ago and hating the crowds I haven’t thought of venturing back until this time.  Why?  Because there was a BLIZZARD.  And huge snow accumulation and well below freezing temperatures keep the crowds at bay.  It was a slow cold drive the the museum was FANTASTIC!  Cami and Lily came with us and we stayed for over 3 hours and had a ball.  I took tons of pictures, here are a few of them:

This first group of photos was taken in the animal halls where they have actual size fake animals behind glass in realistic scenes.  Sounds kind of lame, I know, but it’s great for kids who have a hard time finding the animals in their large cages in the zoo. 

Sophie, trying out the deer ears to see if they improve her hearing.

I thought the manatees were the coolest looking, the light reflections through water were so realistic.  The polar bears were the girls favorite.

 

Trying on moose antlers, too big for my camera lens to capture!

These are from the “Peak Pass” rooms sponsored by a health care company, where you can do all sorts of tests of health and such.  There was a thing that measured your arm span compared to your height, your walking style, your heart health, showed you what you’ll look like at age 65, a brain power contest, and all sorts of illustrations of health facts.  It was very interesting, I need to go back because I didn’t see half of it.  Here’s Sophie balancing across the “river” on a beam and playing with this super cool pin wall thing you could push on either side of.  Those creepy faces are her own she pressed through, reminds me of the horror movie The Haunting!  Does anyone else know what I’m talking about?

Then we headed for the Kid Zone, it was a big hit.  there are so many different things for the kids to do!  They have a piano (you can see inside) dummies whose guts can be removed and pieced back, painting, wind tunnel, blocks of all different kinds, a dance floor, dress ups, digging for dino bones, puzzles/books/games, and more things I forgot for sure.

Sophie really got into swinging her tail on the dance floor, it was so funny to watch I could hardly stop laughing enough to take a picture.

 

Tessa busted some moves too, but only after the coast was clear.

We had to take a lunch break, they had reasonable prices in the T-Rex Cafe, $2 mac-n-cheese and $1.50 slices of pizza I think.  Surprising.  Poor Tessa got dirty and didn’t like that, she has an irresistible pout!

We rushed over to see the real live ASTRONAUT, Sophie was ecstatic!  He stood behind some glass “on Mars,” and let the kids ask him questions over a microphone as he performed some tests on the surface of Mars.  Sophie raised her hand to ask a question and the nice old man brought her microphone and Sophie announced that it was her birthday!  Which it was NOT!!  I was in the back in a crowd and didn’t want to make a huge scene pushing my way up to tell everyone the truth… so the astronaut proceeded to sing her happy birthday and give her a high 5 through the glass.  Little stinker!  In her defense her birthday was less than a month away.

I really like this 2nd picture of Sophie adoring the astronaut and Tessa adoring Sophie because it tells a true story.  Tessa is constantly watching Sophie and imitating her, she looks to her so she can react to everything just like her sister.  They are becoming great friends and playmates which is WONDERFUL.

Sophie now wants to be an astronaut.

We had to get the kids home even though there were a handful of exhibits we hadn’t even stepped foot in.  We have since purchased a membership and can bring up to 7 people in our party free of charge each visit!  So if you want to come, just let me know and we’ll be sure and call you before we go next.