Summer Bucket list # 13 - Go to a Museum

This last Monday was the free day at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  I was thinking that we should stay home till I remembered that we were meeting Mr. J's Speech therapist for an outing there.  Fortunately we were mostly rested up from our busy week last week.  The kids loved the fun house mirrors in the Children's Discovery Center portion of the museum. The did for almost an hour! 

We managed a quick stop to the Egyptian exhibit.  It hasn't changed in the whole time we have lived in Colorado, but the kids did spend some time learning about mummification.  The talk of pulling people's brains out of their nose was quite the topic for much of the day.

"That's my real mummy?"  No... but they do have two mummies showcased and the video on how they did cat scans on them so that their remains weren't disturbed is interesting.

As always we love the space section but the kids are very frustrated that all but Mr. S, they can't go into the kiddie area anymore and dress up like astronaut.  Above you see their astronaut on Mars demo.  It basically looks like you are watching the astronaut from Earth doing experiments and taking readings on the surface of Mars... a Mars Mission where they are living there for a time period.  The kids can ask questions and they give answers that are pretty realistic... but no... they haven't found life as we know on Mars.
  

Of course there are dinosaurs... but this is another exhibit that hasn't changed in the 13 years we have lived in CO.  And there are some areas pertaining to evolution that are very out of date considering modern research.  But... perhaps in time they will get updated.

What I like about this museum is plenty of hands on materials for kids and plenty to engage adults.  They have done very well at that.

The halls of wildlife... basically a large area of taxidermied and stuffed animals sprinkled with some facts of information.  Not my favorite part, but as the kids get older they are reading more of the exhibits and picking up more facts.

Another portion of the Space area they like is the infrared station.  The loved putting their hands on the cold area and then seeing it change under the light or heating up their skin.  They could stay at this station awhile too.

Given that it was a free day, the Expidition Health was packed and the lines for the different parts was long. Which is why a membership is worth it.  But we enjoy the experiment station and doing the different physical station and getting a print out on what we did at the end.  We also still love seeing the video of them climbing Mt. Evans (you should be seeing a post on an adventure up there sometime this summer).  It snows in the theater!

This museum is beloved for our family and we will go there again and again.

Oh and Happy Fourth of July!  Love this Land!