Museum Musings

This blog has a special guest editor today: Mr. Ryan C. Adams

Chanel and I wanted to do something educational with the girls last week, so we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (http://www.dmns.org/main/en/). Everyone knows that I'm a huge science buff (having scored an unprecedented "3" on the science portion of the ACT), and Chanel has an unusual fascination with gross body exhibits, so going to the DMNS was a no-brainer.

The museum is located in the Cherry Creek area of Denver, or so we think because everything around it had "Cherry Creek" in its name. Truth be told, we have no idea where we were, and probably couldn't find the place again without MapQuest. But that's the exciting part about being in a new town.

Chanel and Lauren went to the "Body Worlds 2" exhibit. It's basically an exhibit of dead bodies put in weird positions. Check out the photos if you have the stomach: http://www.dmns.org/main/en/General/Exhibitions/CurrentExhibitions/bodyWorlds.htm.
The line to get into the exhibit was very long, but Chanel didn't realize that, cut about 350 people, and walked right in. She was disappointed in the exhibit. It wasn't "gross enough." It didn't explain whether the bodies were real or fake. It was crowded. She "wanted to see some dead people." I love my freaky wife.

Julia and I looked at the animal exhibits. They have just about every animal known to man taxidermized and on display. We loved it. I was particularly fascinated by the huge moose, the wolverines (I didn't know they really existed), and the beavers, which really frightened me because I thought they were small and cute, but in reality they are huge and scary. The display showed them chewing down a gigantic tree. I have to stop typing about them now or I'll have nightmares of a family of beavers chasing me down Colfax.

Julia loved running around and pushing all of the animal noise buttons. She was my curator, and she told me where to go and what to look at.

We met up after Chanel finished the gnarly body exhibit in the kid section of the museum. We were treated to a puppet show and an interesting karaoke show by Jules. Lauren loved to watch her sister perform.

After the kid section we went to the T-Rex Cafe and had a nutritious lunch of pizza and about 3 pounds of greasy french fries. Then we had the brilliant idea to go to the health portion of the museum. Had we gone there before we ate, we would have shared a small side salad, no dressing. In the health section you can weigh yourself and test your strength. We discovered that I am way below average when it comes to strength. Duh. I went to the museum to learn something.

It was in this section that Chanel met her shadow: a 10-year-old Hispanic boy who just so happened to want to look at everything at the exact time that Chanel wanted to. Chanel was looking at an exhibit of the progression of childbirth. She was looking at a 26-week fetus when she felt the warm breath of the boy on her neck. Hello! Personal space! She became agitated, and the boy didn't do anything to alleviate her anger. For the next few minutes, everything she looked at had the shadow of this crazy kid on it. It was so funny to watch, but I bet so frustrating to experience first hand. "What's a young kid want to look at this birth stuff for?" she asked. I don't know, honey. I don't know.

For the most part, the museum trip was fun. We couldn't decide if we were too smart or too stupid to learn much while there, but it was a blast to do something new. I think the girls had a great time, but whenever I ask Lauren about it she changes the subject.

After the museum we wanted to go to the Tattered Cover bookstore (http://www.tatteredcover.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp), but the girls fell asleep in the car, so we went to a smothie store. Chanel ran in while I waited in the car with the girls. I had my Book of Mormon with me, so I began reading 1Nephi, chapter 1. I was in Ether when she got back, if that gives you an indication of how long it took her. Poor girl. She was stuck in a crowded room full of dead people at the museum, and now she had to wait forever for our smoothies. She again demonstrated her ability to be very smooth by talking herself into a free smoothie that was made on accident for no one in particular. The manager was going to throw it away until Chanel said "I'll take it."

So we hopped on the 25 and drove back to Castle Rock, all the while drinking our three smoothies. We love it here.