The first thing we did in the Butterfly House building was look at all the bugs that are on display that aren't butterflies. In other words, the ones that give me the skeevies. The hubby posed with the Jungle Nymphs. Lovely name. See the leaves? Those aren't leaves. Those would be the Nymphs. *Shudders.
After being successfully creeped out in exponential amounts by scorpions, huge spiders, and cockroaches of every size and color, we went into the actual butterfly part of the Butterfly House. Our glasses immediately fogged up again. Later in the day, I pulled supper out of the oven and fogged up my glasses again. It was a running theme of the day!
Back to the date. The plants and butterflies here are all tropical, so the heat and humidity in there is really, really high. The hubby took a bunch of pictures. The first 10 all turned out like this. We sat on a bench fairly quickly after we entered in order to just to take it all in, and he noticed the camera was fogged up. If we hadn't, we'd probably have 50 more awesome examples of why fog is bad for a lens.
Thankfully, the lens cleared quickly. It was nice to just sit there and let 'em all fly around us anyway. We were then able to just walk around and enjoy (and snap some non-foggy pictures). This one makes me feel like we're posing in the tropical honeymoon we didn't have. Why should I get on a plane (where I am the least fun person on earth) and travel somewhere when I can see all this in good ole Missouri? The plants are stunning in this place!
There were so many butterflies flying around. Unfortunately, our camera didn't do the place justice. They were everywhere. All different sizes and colors. They were on the plants and walkways, on little girl's legs (I guess they like innocence? Damn it!), but the main place they were was flying through the air all around us. They were so active and fluttering all around.
There were a couple little sets that were all a-twirl together. Fighting. Or possibly mating. I mean, who can ever tell, am I right, Ladies? Da dada da. Ba da.
And that's why I'm not a stand up comedian. The husband humors my poor humor. Marrying him was definitely my greatest accomplishment. At least I was smart enough to grab him up!
Sorry. Got a little off topic there. Back to the butterflies. The hubby got some good pics of a few that had landed.
This little orange and black one was adorable.
They hung upside down, sideways, right side up...
This sweet brown species was everywhere.
My husband is such a good husband. I know walking among hundreds of flying butterflies doesn't make him feel like a fairy princess (which is good, you know, in general). I, on the other hand, even wore a swoopy swishy skirt so that every step felt enchanted. I think the husband was just glad I don't own a tiara. Even if it would have complemented my outing perfectly.
See the blue around me? Those are beautiful blue butterflies. For some reason, the camera doesn't catch the 20 more that are also in this shot. But somehow it made my outfit about a thousand times more unflattering than it looked in the mirror at home. Thanks camera.
There is a section of the Butterfly House that shows the butterflies in various stages of their pre-flying-around life cycle. I love that they show this and don't have it hidden in a back room somewhere.
For the record, I asked the hubby if he wanted me to crop him out of this photo. He loves to close his eyes when he smiles. 90% of all his photos prove this. He said, "Hell no! Leave me in." Okay, Weirdo. I should also admit that while I was taking this, I was saying, "It's not taking the picture! The screen says it's busy? Why won't this work?" Most men wouldn't be able to muster up a smile at me through that. He does so genuinely and calmly assures me the camera is indeed still taking photos.
He has to deal with a lot.
While we did the always endearing hand in hand stroll part of the time, I spent most of our date just wandering around. I guess on my last weekend as a younger person it was fitting to feel a little bit like a nursing home resident. I wander and I am at peace and I am wandering... Wander, wander. Stop and look up. Stare at something in the distance. Lose my ability to focus on one butterfly and try to see them all at the same time. Wander some more.
I made the hubby walk around the place probably 3 times. By then, we were both sweating through our clothes and a lot more people were there. I was ready to regain my rightful age. Stupid time and it's progressing in an orderly fashion.
There were LOTS of butterflies flying around me. I am not just gazing into the distance. I WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO COULD SEE THEM. Sheesh.
We snapped one more pic before we left. Always good to leave when you start to hear a lot of babies crying. At the top of their lungs.
Even the building and the lush canopy of plants around us and over us seemed to say, "Thanks for visiting. Have a safe drive home. What are you waiting for?"
You know, Plants and General Butterfly House.
"Listen Lady, a butterfly didn't land on you because you wanted it too much. You could sit here all day and it's not gonna happen."
Yeah, I know. They were just taunting me by landing on every little kid that walked by. My 5 Bath and Body Works scents were no match for the purity of a child. Yeah, yeah. Thanks Butterfly House. Is it really too much to ask for just one of them to take a little breather on my arm? Leg? Nose? I'M NOT PARTICULAR.
"Shut up about the butterflies. Visit the gift shop on your way out and please come again."
We bought 2 things in the gift shop (our entire date, still about the cost of one movie ticket). On an unrelated note, I think this picture proves that my husband could be a hand model.
Yes, there were ants in the chocolate. We ate them after supper for "dessert". I am proud of myself for doing this. And not throwing up. I couldn't taste them, and I like chocolate. So that helped. I know the ants were in there because of the crunch. It helped that my hubby persuaded me to eat one whole piece at a time (instead of wussing out and taking a tiny bite, which would have surely shown the ants inside and therefore made me much less brave). That's off the bucket list.
There was one more item. It was a much harder sell for the husband. He refused to get his own. He did try mine later. They had lots of them in different flavors with different, um, centers.
My lolly was apple flavored and had a worm inside. I did ultimately fail at finishing this but I did work at it until I could taste a tiny bit of the worm. He kind of tasted like pecans in a wormy way. I just couldn't continue on, though. Because he may taste okay but I'm still physically licking a worm and with every lick, I have to look at it and examine it and no. Sorry. The whole point was this was something I would typically be horrified about. And I was in fact horrified when I saw the bug candy during a previous trip to the Butterfly House. How aghast I was was exactly what made me determined to buy the damn thing this trip. Yeah, it's stupid. I can't argue with that.
So we kind of made our couldn't-be-less-testosterone-y date extreme (say it like a fan of monster trucks and male-junk injuring skateboard trick enthusiasts) with the addition of the bugs, right? That helped make a balance anyway. One pound of pretties, 16 ounces of gag reflex. Now we can say we tried it. And we don't ever have to try insect food items from the Butterfly House again. Seasoned veterans that we are now (been there, done that).
Sigh. Fine. There wasn't really a balance. Thank you, Husband, for taking me to the girlie land of magic. And for dating me again. I loved it today, and last week, and the week before. Always looking forward to the next moment together. This whole dating thing, genius! If I do say so myself. And I just did. So I do.
I do! Just like our wedding vows. Pow! I'm packing all kinds of magical... magic. Here.
Wow. I am so lucky someone married me. Our next date is 3 days away!
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