birthday and butterflies

Last week I celebrated my birthday. I'm a July baby. 

Rachel treated ME and a guest (Chuck) to a morning at the new butterfly pavilion in Scottsdale.
It just recently opened and I have been anxious to go. I love the small seasonal butterfly exhibit at the Botanical Gardens, so I knew I would probably like this place. It did not disappoint!

 The first thing we did after entering is put on some 3-D glasses and watch a pretty amazing movie in the theater room. That is when my smile began.

I tried to hold the glasses up to my camera and snap a few pictures to try and capture the 3-D experience to take home with me. It didn't work real well.

After the movie we moved into the Emergence Gallery. There were many, many chrysalises behind glass windows. So many different kinds. So incredible to see the newly hatched and just hatched butterflies.

Row after row of chrysalis. All tagged and numbered according to the type of butterfly.

Beautiful!

And look at these! They looked like 14K gold!

And then we entered the large Conservatory. The temperature outside that day was about 108. It was a bit cooler in here but the humidity was high. Balmy and steamy! The lady that was at the entrance door said... "the humidity is 80%, so if you have naturally curly hair...watch out, it's going to get big. But, you are going to have a nice facial while you are in there!" 

I had given Rachel my camera to help me with some setting issues. It was about this time that she just said "Mom, do you want me to just take the pictures?" I said sure. And then for the first 2 minutes in the steamy room, Chuck and I were both doing this... "Rachel, get a picture of this one". "Rachel, here!" "Rachel, look at this ONE!"  "Look, over here!"

"Rachel!"

And so on. She was laughing at us. I was like a wild little kid, squealing and smiling and pointing.

There were hundreds of this particular kind. I believe it was the Blue Morpho. Blue you ask?

Why yes. Take a peak of the top side of its wings...

...when they are completely opened up! These were flying all around us. They were on the ground. In the trees. Everywhere. I felt like I was in a movie where the butterflies were digitally created all around me. It just didn't seem real! 

"Rachel, get a picture of this one with the sun shining through the wings!"

Of course, she is good enough with the camera and has a good eye that she didn't need me to point out a good shot. She did well enough on her own.

There are six different kinds in this photo.

Beautiful.

Vibrant.

Pretty.

They were landing on our clothing, arms, heads and hands. Rachel got a good picture of these two.

 No editing on any of these photos. Isn't this beautiful?

I loved how these were sitting on the tree trunk. Those bright blue ones fluttering by are the same as those on the tree. Loved those!

This one hung out on Rachel for the longest time. I think it loved her bright yellow shirt.

 Look at this! They had sliced watermelon and cantaloupe in glass bowls. This particular variety (the bright blue on the top of the wings) loved the fruit. They were stacked in these bowls getting their fill of sweetness!

Perfect.

Not only did my "naturally curly" hair grow while in the atrium, I grew wings too!

Birthday girl.

I enjoyed my birthday treat so much! Thank you Rachel for the gift and thanks for taking so many great photos!

If you live here in the Phoenix area be sure to visit this Butterfly Wonderland. And, if you come to see us in the near future...guess where we are going!!

Mariposa extravaganza!