Butterflies and Birthdays

This weekend I celebrated yet another birthday. I started the day off by sleeping in and then waking up to a homemade waffle breakfast and a house full of flowers (isn't my hubby the sweetest?). It was kind of a crummy day in terms of the weather so we decided to visit the Butterfly Gardens. I've lived here since I was 4 years old and I've never been to our local Butterfly Gardens.

Butterfly Gardens was probably the best place of visit on a cold day, it was so warm and humid. It was almost like a mini vacation. You are greeted by flamingos and koi as you walk in.

The number of different varieties of butterflies is amazing. We had an absolute blast walking around with our little identification chart trying to finding each different butterfly.

Look closely at this guy. You can see his little tongue curled up in front. They had little trays of citrus fruit out for the butterflies to feed on. It was neat to see them land there and uncurl their tongues.

This guy here on the right has this interesting brown design when his wings are closed but when he opens them up they are a beautiful iridescent blue (we tried to get a picture with the wings open but they are just so darn quick!)

Can you spot all the butterflies on this bush (click on the photo to make it bigger)?

Butterflies are not the only residents at the butterfly gardens. We managed to catch a glimpse of several tropical birds including budgies and little finches.







The whole place was really peaceful, interesting and serene. Towards the end of our visit we sat down on a bench just let the butterflies surround us as we listened to the sounds of the waterfalls and the birds. It was a really nice way to spend the day.
After that we had lunch at a local farm/bakery that grows their own wheat and mills it into the bread they serve with lunch. It was really nice.
Finally as the day was wrapping up (and I was realizing I was getting a cold) we headed to my parents house for some awesome Thai soup. What an awesome way to spend your birthday!
(Sorry for the weird formatting, Blogger and I weren't getting along today)