Butterflies!

We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the butterflies. We also saw a few birds and flowers while we were there.

Some flowers were blooming on the saguaros, which was cool. We could even see bees buzzing around the flowers.

We saw a number of hummingbirds.

The main attraction: the butterflies! The Desert Botanical Garden has a butterfly enclosure in the spring (multiple varieties of butterflies) and all (monarchs). They've upgraded the enclosure so it is much larger than before.

They also have eggs (laid by the butterflies, of course), caterpillars and some chrysalis. Here's a holey leaf with a bunch of caterpillars munching away!

This butterfly landed on Megan.

I was able to hold a butterfly. The Painted Ladies were the only kind that would allow you to hold them on your hand, although occasionally another kind landed on a hat or back.

This butterfly loved Megan. It was on her finger for half an hour or so.

Sarah was very good with the butterflies. Some people were calling her the "butterfly whisperer" because she could get them on her hands pretty easily.

Sarah was very nice and shared her butterflies with others, including her brother here.

This butterfly liked Matthew and stuck with him for quite awhile.

See the butterfly on Uriah's shirt? (It's close to his armpit.)

This one landed on the bottom of my leg.

Here one is on my shoulder.

Here's one on Matthew's back.

A pretty one on my hat!

The kids each holding a butterfly. We sure enjoyed visiting them!