Butterfly's and Boys

I took my daughter and her boys to the Butterfly Pavilion in Broomfield Colorado last week. It is located right of HWY 36. Take the Church Ranch exit and follow the signs. It's really easy to get to. Their website will give you prices, which are very reasonable, and activities to do with family.

It's a great place for kids because there are hands-on activities. Lots to keep the little mind and body busy. I also doesn't take that long to go through. You can do it in an hour, but I like staying longer to enjoy the butterflies. There was a guy there with a camera that said he had been there since it opened and they were about to close when I met him. The picture opportunities are awesome so I took quite a few.

Elmo Cake

This one was super easy. I used a box mix! Yeah, I know.  I have been trying to find good recipes that work well without drying out at 7600 ft.  So far haven't found it yet.  Besides I had to get this done so I opted for quick method.

I used the Butter Cream Frosting and found a picture of Elmo on the internet.  This is how it turned out.  Made it for a little boy turning three.  He loves it!

Civilized Breakfasts

Civilized Breakfasts started when my husband and I wanted to have meals out on our deck.  We have a lovely back yard and huge deck that we wanted to utilize.  So I took my linens and china out to the deck table and dressed it up one Sunday morning. I made an extra special menu to enjoy.  By paying attention to details that we wouldn't otherwise do for our meal we really enjoyed this experience.  Instead of keeping this to ourselves we began inviting or friends and neighbors over to enjoy the meal with us.  It ended up that we spent much time visiting and really getting to know these people a lot better.  

Beachel and Patricia Perry.



We were in the process of remodeling our kitchen after we completed our addition (a cute apartment we call the "Guest House"). We built it in case one of our parents might need it someday.  Our old kitchen cabinets were moved into there and we put new ones in the new kitchen.  Both projects turned out beautiful. 

  

Now that our kitchen is done we had our "Maiden Breakfast" so to speak.  We sent out invitations and I also called to make sure our guests could do it.  My sister-in-law, Denice, and I worked together to get a color scheme going and then had a ball putting it all together.  She came up with a menu and I made up fancy menu cards to slide into the napkin ring holders.  We also wanted to use fresh flowers and found some in the right colors at the local grocery store.   

 

After checking the weather forcast for our first CB we realized we would have to move it inside as it was supposed to snow all day.  Our new kitchen easily accomodated the deck tables and chairs.  We set up the tablescapes the night before so we could spend the morning preparing the food.  Our spouses, Don and Greg, helped us get this whole thing put together and were our waiters.  I bought them black aprons to wear.  They looked very cool. We all dressed in the colors of the tablescapes. 

 

Casey and Anna enjoying the day.



The menu was Blueberry Almond Coffee Cake (recipe found in my blog recipe list), Fresh Fruit Compote, Colorado Egg Bake, Herb Roasted Potatoes, Sausage Patties, Orange Juice, Tea, or Coffee. We served the coffee cake and fruit first and then served the brunch plate.   



We tried to pay attention to plating.  We made some mistakes but they were minor and no one noticed.  They enjoyed the food and hung around for an hour or so after the meal to chat. Our guests felt pampered which is what we wanted.  We told them they could take the menu card home if they wanted.  At the top of the menu card was a short verse, "Good food, good friends, good conversation.  We feel blessed by you.  Enjoy." We also had them sign our CB guestbook.  We want to invite different people each time so we can get to know as many as possible. 

I think we will do this twice a month.  Once we have a tablescape put together we will put it in a box and label it.  This one is "Classic Contemporary".  We will use it again and often.  We can add to it and make changes as we go.  But the basics are there now.  We are planning on doing three or four different tablescapes for now and reusing them.  We can make them different by adding something new or mixing them up if the colors go well from one tablescape to the other.

 







Dinosaur Tracks in Tuba City Arizona

A fun thing to do with your  family is to take them to Tuba City Arizona and take a tour of the Dinosaur Tracks on the Navajo Indian Reservation.  It's free but they request a donation.  Don gave them $20.00 for our family of four.  The site is located on the north side of US Hwy 160, five miles east of US Hwy 89 or a little over five miles west of the turnoff for Tuba City. Turn north onto the dirt track, then drive about a quarter-mile.

Dennis, a native Indian and born in the area, was our guide.  He seemed knowledgeable and was very friendly.  He answered our questions and was patient with our kids who wanted to climb all over everything.  They encourage you to touch and walk around.  They also allow you to pick up rocks (lots of Red Agate and petrified wood)  and small things (like dinosaure poop-corporlite splaters, YUK!) and keep them. 

Supposedly a "baby" T-rex footprint.

This natural site contains many lower Jurassic theropod tracks. A site that describes Dinosaur Tracks in much more detail and has a link to Tuba City and other tracking sites is http://paleo.cc/paluxy/ovrdino.htm. 

Another thing about this spot is the native made jewelry and crafts that are for sale at the roadside stands. The stands are rough made wooden stands, some refer to them as vending tables,  but the crafts are beautiful.  They encourage you to touch and the jewelry is usually made from local stones or ones imported from not too far away. The prices are reasonable too and you can usually work a deal.

The people are very kind and friendly.  It was a pleasure to talk with them.

Apparently this area was at one time a huge lake and as it receded the animals would come to the edge for drinks.  The soft mud around the water was littered with droppings, foot prints, and foliage that was pressed down into it.  Evidence of this was everywhere. Our guide told us that as the winds were very strong there the sandstone was bombarded and eroded away leaving impressions of prints, leaves, and fossilized and petrified eggs, wood, and bones.


The tour was fun though I was chasing my grandsons most of the time.  They loved it.  So I didn't get to hear much of what our guide was saying.  He did tell us that through out his wonderings as a kid he discovered a lot of fun things like ripples in sandstone left by the water, foot prints that they believed to be Anasazi Indians, and foliage imbedded into the sandstone. 

Dinosaur Tail


 As we were on our way to California and under a time crunch we didn't get to hang out there as long as we would have liked.  I do plan on going back and spending longer looking around.  I thought it was fasinating to see and enjoyed it very much.

Tracks....Diplodocus




Pre-historic Fish Egg.




Davy touching a pre-historic fish egg.



Santa Fe New Mexico Adventure

I have always wanted to go to Santa Fe and stay in the old town part.  There are several hotels and numerous restaurants. Aside from that there are endless shops and galleries. Most of the stores have Southwest style goods but there are a few other choices.  What is cool is that there are lots of "Plazas" inside buildings that if you don't stop in you miss a lot!  It's pretty cool to see what is hidden away off the main street stores. So I recommend you take a couple of days and enjoy it all.  The shops surround the square where street performers play. Nice place to rest from shopping.

Street vendors selling jewelry in the square.

  



 One of the interesting points of the day was the native sellers of jewelry that lined one side of the square along the block long building.  They sat in chairs against the wall and spread out their wares on the ground while shoppers came by to check out the art.  The pieces were beautiful and the prices were reasonable. They encourage you to touch too, which is pretty cool. They aren't pushy, they just let you look and answer your questions.  





Old Town Square.

 



I loved this sculpture. 10K.

 

Plaza Bakery.

We love pastries and ice cream.  We saw the Plaza Bakery and stayed to have some goodies and coffee for lunch.  They have a good variety of pastries, pies, and breakfast choices, all of which looked great. Denice and I got an eclair, Don ordered a whole wheat roll and almond croissant, and Greg had a cinnamon roll.  The pastries tasted good.  My coffee was bitter but some of us like it that way.  I like mine smoother.  What was terrible was the bathrooms.  If I had gone in there first I would not have stayed to eat.  They were disgusting!

Eclair at the Plaza Bakery.





Sue in Mink! Overland Sheepskin Factory.



Our room at the Inn of the Governors near Old Town Sante Fe, NM.

Our suite had a living room area.

Breakfast Buffet at The Inn of the Governors.

The breakfast at our hotel was great.  Lots of choices and everything was fresh and cooked well.  I liked the choices of fresh fruit, but there were eggs, pastries, meats, pancakes, cereal, breads and more.  Fresh orange juice and coffee accompanied the food at a well laid out buffet. The wait staff was great too. 

Sue and Don enjoying breakfast.



Greg and Denice.








At the Inn of the Governors the rooms were decorated in a Southwest Style and the queen size beds were comfortable.  There was a small balcony outside, but it overlooked the parking lot. The room included a nice sitting room on the other side of a short half wall.  The bathroom was okay, but the grout was crumbling around the tub.  The room was clean and the towels and linens were good quality.  Two robes for going to the pool hung in the closet.  They looked cozy. There is also an honor bar in the small refrigerator and the water on the counter cost $1 per bottle.  Coffee was included in the room price.There was plenty of room for the four of us.  I also like the fact that the Internet was free.  The decor around the outside of the building needs updating. In the evening there is tea and sherry with biscochitos. We enjoyed a cup of herb tea while we look at a book full of restaurants and menus.  Unfortunately we didn't realize that the fine dining requires or strongly recommends reservations so we ate at the Blue Corn Cafe.  The food was okay, but I missed out on getting some of those wonderful dishes I wanted to try from the hand of a chef that does the regional style cooking.  Hopefully next time.The breakfast was really good and there was plenty of choices.



Love this vase.







The dining area was nice and the service was good.  They are happy to answer questions and meet your needs.  Overall it was a good experience.  I would recommend it as a moderately priced place to stay in the old town area.  The room was $230 per night and the breakfast and tea were included.  They charge for an extra person and the taxes were high.  But that is New Mexico.



T-rex Express A Total Success!

When I came home from the T-rex Express I was totally exhausted.  But it was a good kind of exhaustion.  The event was totally successful.  Both train runs were completely sold out. 

For $15.00 per ticket each passenger received a kit with a dinosaur cookie, water bottle, program, entry form, pencil, (kids got a bucket, shovel, and brush as well) along with our school brochure.  There was a complete program from start to finish.  There were two dome cars, the one people like the best because of the nice seats and view.  On the first car Ranger Patrick gave a presentation of fossils found in and around the valley with some extra fossils from other places.  In the second car Jim Moon, song writer/musician performed his songs written especially for the T-rex Express.  With Jim  was "Rexie", our T-rex Express Mascot.  After fifteen minutes the presenters switched cars and gave their programs to the other coach until the train arrived south of town at a simulated dig site set up by Eric VanIwaarden and Don Kanen.

Boarding the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad.




Passengers exited the train and

 went to the section assigned to them and the kids dug for real Mammoth bones.  They were so excited when they found one and brought it up the the canvas with a baby Colombian Mammoth drawn out.  Ranger Patrick then explained the bones found and placed them where they should go on the Mammoth.  Then the smaller kids were directed to a special dig where they could find dinosaur egg toys and plastic dinosaur toys.

Back on the train and heading for the station there was a drawing that provided prizes like a book on dinosaurs, a T-Rex Express T-shirt, and a "dig kit" of Mammoth, Stegosaurus, and T-rex.  Ranger Patrick took around a "living fissile" a giant salamander for everyone to pet. Passengers could also purchase these items in the gift shop at the train depot.  

"Rexie" greeting little passengers.

Kayleith and Patty distributing buckets and bags.

 While waiting to board the train passengers took advantage of the T-rex balloons made by Casey Martinez and friends.  They could also have their picture taken with Rexie next to the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad.

When getting off the train I asked them how they liked the trip.  They all said it was fantastic and worth the ticket price.  This event would not have been a success if it weren't for the hard work of volunteers and donations from the San Luis Valley businesses and sponsors.  Because of their generosity we were able to provide tickets for all the PALS kids and provide them with T-rex Express T-shirts too.    Thank you to all who helped and to those who came and rode the train.  This was a total success!!



Ranger Patrick and son presenting fossils to passengers.



Tim Pellandini and Josh Kanen, Section Leaders at the Dig.







Digging at the dig site.



 



Myrna, Casey, and Jessey making T-rex balloons.

 

Jim Moon singing the T-rex song.







Chris and Myrna, Alamosa Welcome Center

workers with "Rexie".





Santana, Skyleigh, Deja, EllaGrace, and Calista enjoying the ride.



Getting off the train at the dig site.