Butterflies and Body Parts

About a month ago, our family got together with Renita and Ben, Caitlin, and the girls to use the great Groupon deals we had purchased to go to the Butterfly Center, which is part of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and to use Ben's free passes to the Museum of Health and Medical Science. It was a great day! We went to the Butterfly Museum first and were amazed at how much more there was to it than just butterflies. There were TONS of exhibits about all kinds of other insects! And the area where the live butterflies are kept was HUGE and beautiful and it was just alive with several different species of stunning butterflies. Next, we saw the Health Museum, which was full of countless interesting, incredible, and hands-on exhibits about  health and the human body. There was plenty at both places for every member of our group to enjoy.

Outside the Butterfly Center. Luke was fascinated by this big turning ball.

It's one of those ridiculously heavy granite balls suspended on water. Luke loved to spin it and try to stop it from spinning.

Luke decided he was ready to go inside.

Little Luke hand prints on the steps.

Luke thought it was so cool and funny to watch a penny swirl around this "coin racing" exhibit.

Jeff caught the penny and started it back up at the top 3 or 4 times, but this time they lost it for good.

Check out these little Poison Dart Frogs! They look exactly like the little rubber ones, but they're real!

GIANT caterpillar

Luke loved to play with all of the trivia and game touch screens.

GROSS! These are cave cockroaches. It's hard to pick the one exhibit that gave me the heeby jeebies the worst, but this one could very well have been it.

SICK, right?

Aaahhh! The massive African Longhorn Beetle! At least this one wasn't alive!

Hissing cockroaches. I would cry if anyone tried to make me eat one of those the way they do on Fear Factor.

"Longest Insect - The record-holding Malaysian walking stick measured 22 inches from its front legs to the tip of its abdomen." Every one of these record-holding insects was seriously shocking!

"Strongest Insect - The rhinoceros beetle can carry 850 times its own weight - equivalent to a 175 lb. man lifting about 150,000 lbs!"

This is the Goliath Birdeater Tarantula. It is the largest spider in the world (full grown, it can be the size of a dinner plate)! Terrifying! But don't worry, it lives in the South American rainforest.

This little hermit crab was trying to communicate with Luke through the glass. Luke thought it was hilarious!

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Out to the gorgeous butterfly area. Luke got so excited and ran ahead when he saw it.

There were butterflies everywhere!

This butterfly let Luke touch it twice before it flew away! I've always been told the oil from human hands does a lot of damage to butterfly wings so we didn't let him touch any more, but he was really excited to have been able to "pet" this one.

Ben and Becca

That dark blur is a butterfly trying to push the black butterfly off of that big leaf. I'm not sure why. The black butterfly determinedly stood it's ground.

Making our way to the bottom of the butterfly house.

There was a waterfall and a pool of water down there. Luke really wanted to go swimming.

So pretty!

Me and my sweet boy!

I love my little family!

Luke in the "cave"

The "cave" was really just the arch over the door exiting the butterfly house and re-entering the building where there were more insect exhibits.

Luke loved that he was allowed to open all of these drawers full of insects.

Jeff got Luke so excited to catch one of the butterflies flying around on this wall. He ran over giggling, only to discover that they were only shadows created by a projector. Why is it that all dads just love to tease?

Jeff playing the insect version of PacMan.

Luke had to give it a try too!

Having a snack in between museums.

In the health museum, Jeff and Ben played a game where they each had to relax their minds. Whose ever mind was most relaxed would move the ball to the opposite end of the table. The ball went back and forth at the center of the table for a while, but ultimately, Ben won. I'm not sure which one of them should be prouder of that outcome.

I did really well at the reflexes game. I caught the stick at the .11 mark. It was really impressive until Jeff came in and beat me with a .09. Ugh.

Jeff's record standing jump, without a running start or even a step back, was 36 inches. He hadn't been able to do his normal workout routine for 3 months while his weights were in storage, but he still managed about a 32 inch jump. Impressive! I'm pretty sure I could do about 6 inches. Seriously. I can't jump. We're hoping our kids get Jeff's jumping ability, not mine.

Jeff was able to stand and reach the 90 inch button and then hit the 120 inch button when he jumped, but his finger tips reached beyond the top of the button.

According to this machine, which quizzed me about my lifestyle and heredity, I am going to live to be 93 years old. Jeff will be 94.

There is an awesome machine at the health museum that takes your picture and then morphs your face into different genders and ethnicities.

This is Jeff as a woman (the machine doesn't change your hair). It's a really good thing he's a man!

African-American Jeff.

Asian Jeff. This actually looks pretty natural!

Aaaahhhh! Me as a man! So bad!

African-American Kira. Not bad.

Asian Kira. Also looks pretty natural, in my opinion.

This is a little room that measures the decibel level of your scream. The kids got the concept immediately! All three of them piled in there and screamed their little hearts out! If I remember correctly, Jeff was the loudest and I took second. Renita was the quietest.

Luke giving a virtual biking game a try.

Some parts of the museum were made to look like giant models of a part of the human body, filled with exhibits about that body part. Here is Luke perched atop a massive molar in the mouth room.

We finished off our visit with a live dissection of a real cow eye. I tried to keep myself distracted with other things. I couldn't look at it.