Butterfly Garden

This is a continuation of the trip we took in August 2008









I never got around to posting about our day at the Butterfly Gardens in Canada.


The Butterfly garden was in a large, barn shaped building with a glass roof. The building was filled with flowering trees and plants that provided food and shelter for thousands of butterflies.

They bring in thousands of tropical butterfly chrysalis and hatch them out.

It was hot and humid inside like a tropical rainforest. Misters kept the moisture in the air very high.

There were colorful butterflies fluttering by everywhere we looked. I tried to get pictures of them flying, but they were too quick to get a good picture. I did get a few pictures of them as they rested on trees.

The upward turning pitcher plant is about 8 inches long! I didn't know they were that big!

The big hanging bells were about 12-15 feet long.


The brown butterflies with "eyes" on the side were brilliant florescent blue inside. I tried to get a picture of them when they were open, but the picture just turned out brown. It didn't capture the florescence! They were fruit loving butterflies feasting on bananas.

The pink flowers in the flamingo picture are also shown in closeup. They were very brilliant and fluffy looking.

My Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm not telling how old that makes me! The staff at Greg's office game me a little party with veggies and dip (my choice!)

Then, for dinner, Greg, Amber and I went out to eat at Sizzlers. I got the lemon herb chicken and rice.

After that, we all went to the Latin Dance Club at ISU. It was our first time there. It was held in a room at Reed Gym. There were about 10 or 12 people there - mostly college students, but some older too. For the first hour there was dance instruction. We learned the basic steps for the salsa, and a few turns and variations. Amber caught on really fast; she had attended a Salsa workshop last semester. But it took Greg and I us almost the whole time to get it right - my feet just didn't' want to go the right way - but we finally got it!

There are three dance clubs at ISU: ballroom, swing, and Latin. They each meet every week. We will try to get to one of them each week!

On Sunday, Sarah and Glen will come over and I will have a birthday cake and open my presents. I like birthdays that last several days!

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas!

It had snowed about a foot during the last few days. So early Christmas morning the roads were deep with soft, drifted snow. Greg, Amber, and I took about 45 minutes to shovel out the driveway. It was so beautiful outside. All the trees and bushes were thickly covered with white snow. Then Greg drove our 4-wheel drive suburban through the deep snow to pick up Glen and Sarah.

It was fun opening presents, especially our new DDR pads!

We spent a lot of our time on Christmas on those pads!

At 1:00 pm, three missionaries came over to check their email. They like coming over because with our multiple computers, they can all check their email at once. They were jolly and happy because they had all just talked to their families on the phone.

We had a delicious chicken stir-fry dinner and lots of yummy holiday sweets.

Here are the pictures!

Early Thanksgiving

On Saturday we had an early Thanksgiving at Alex's house. It was a wonderful weekend. Glen and Sarah, and Amber and Jessica were there. Trent and Lorajean and their kids also came. What a great family they have! Alex had invited Mark and Jan, but unfortunately they were flying out to S. California that day so they couldn't come.

The kids all had such a good time playing. We enjoyed several wonderful meals prepared by Alex and Lanette including a couple of Asian dishes plus the Thanksgiving feast. We watched movies and played Bonanza, a fun card game.

We also spent a lot of time playing Dance Dance Revolution or DDR. We all want one now! It is a computer dance game. You watch the screen and step on the correct button on a large "pad" on the floor. There are two pads so two people can compete. There are different levels. You should see Alex and Lanette dance! They were moving very fast! I was impressed that the 2nd time he tried it, Glen earned a "B!" The rest of us struggled to "pass" after a dozen tries on the lowest level!

We are going to have another little family Thanksgiving this Friday at home. We want to cook another turkey so we can have some turkey leftovers!

Buchart Gardens

Our Washington Trip continued:

Here are some pictures of our trip to Buchart Gardens. It was so beautiful! Enjoy the pictures!