Denver Museum of Nature & Science

The Museum of Nature and Science in Denver is a really fun place, so fun in fact, that we spent two consecutive days here! I'm LOVING our museum membership (we get free or half price entry into most AZA (zoos) and ASTC (science and technology centers) affiliated places!

Our first stop was the space exhibit where you can talk with an "astronaut" on 

Mars and ask her questions (she's behind glass in a Mars background 

and communicates to the kids thru a mike system). It's a neat setup.

You can even become an astronaut yourself!

The museum's dinosaur exhibit was incredible! This was the first time that I've ever seen a whole REAL dinosaur skeleton, and they had a good number of them as well as fossils of creatures that are hard to imagine actually existed. The size of the bugs and creatures just blows my mind.

We observed scientists meticulously chiseling rock from a 

fossilized mammoth skull that was recently discovered in the area.

Then the kids made their own discoveries in the dig area.

Rode and yes, kissed the dinosaur.

They just opened a small children's museum inside this 

museum and the kids spent hours exploring, learning and playing.

Asher's favorite was this tube track. Each piece connects to the wall with magnets which you have to arrange so the ball continues thru the track. He played with this for almost an hour.

More than 90 wildlife exhibits featuring real, preserved animals in large, domed displays are so incredibly realistic that Asher and I both banged our heads on the glass when leaning in, ha!

If we had antlers...

They have the largest rock and gemstone exhibit we have seen, including the only collection of  gemstone sculptures by Vasily Konovalenko that are on display outside of Moscow. The detail on these are incredible and makes it hard to believe they are made from gemstones. He includes the details of the materials he used on each plaque.