Denver Museum of Nature and Science

I have always wanted to go see the exhibit Bodyworlds.  It was being held at the DMN&S, so I worked on convincing the kids how exciting it would be to go see bodies with no skin.  Abs wasn't buying it, so I printed off the family guide that was on the website that contained all these facts that Abs could learn while we were driving up there.  If you give her facts, she is happy.

You can't take pictures inside the exhibit, but I have to tell you, it was amazing!  To see up closely all your muscles and organs, there are no words for it.  I could totally handle being a doctor with the blood and guts.....as long as they weren't contagious!

One of my favorite things in the exhibit is where they took plastic and inserted it into the veins, and then took it all away, and you were left with the veins, capillaries, etc., throughout the entire body.  Absolutely amazing.

At one point, Abs tried to escape and asked one of the people monitoring the exhibit to escort her out.  He told me that she would be waiting at the end in a chair.  Waiting.....in a chair.....for at least the next hour????  Yeah right.  I assured him that he was fine (another mom of the year moment) and had her stay with me.  She did enjoy it, read everything, presented facts to me about the human body, and then would act like it was gross after she really studied what she was looking at.

Junior was fine looking at it all, but was fascinated with the slices of the brain sticking out of the tops of heads.  He decided "that's a cool haircut" and "I want one too".  He was more interested in why the people died, did they have cancer like his Grandpa did?

If you can go see this, definitely do!

Outside of the exhibit they had volunteers with booths setup to challenge your thinking about the human body, explain different things to you, and to quiz you.  Abs was all over the quiz booth.  You got to choose a number, answer the question, and if you answered it correctly, you received a green stamp on your arm.  

Remember those human body facts that I printed out?  In the hour and a half drive, she had memorized them all.  By the end of her stint there, she was covered in stamps and they had invited other volunteers over to watch her answer questions.  

We walked around the rest of the museum afterwards.  (It's free to military, but we did have to pay for the Bodyworlds exhibit)  They have this really neat exhibit all about your body and how it works.  

Junior checking out the veins in his hands.  You could press on them and see which way the blood was flowing, etc.  

Abs got selected to be  "whole grain" in the play they were performing.  She thought she would have been a better "super spinach".

Junior was hooked on the "nail" wall.

You can checkout your heartrate on the bikes.  Age a picture of you to see what you will look like at 70, and a million other things.  You are given a card when you arrive and you enter all your personal information on it, and then use it to perform the tasks throughout this exhibit.  At the end, you can print out your information along with a picture.

After we finished up there, I made the kids run around in circles at City Park to burn off some extra energy, then we headed to the airport to pick up Em after her London adventure.

When Em left, Abs had one request of a beefeater's hat.

Em delivered.