EcoBlitz at the Hormel Nature Center!

On Saturday, June 22, Callie and I headed out to the Hormel Nature Center to participate in their "EcoBlitz" classes!  My friend, Susan told me about this and I am so thankful that she did!  I called on Friday afternoon and reserved a spot!  Granted the weather was a little chilly and it had just rained the night before...all in all, Callie LOVED it!

She had to participate in 3 activities to complete her time there :)

First stop - Scoop the Pond :)

Thankfully our instructor helped us, so Callie didn't realize that I was completely grossed out by touching everything.  But when the time came - I did it - I don't want Callie to be afraid or grossed out by my issues :)

This here is a BABY Dragonfly - yeah, a baby!  I thought this was the grossest thing there :)

She wasn't really getting into it until we put the bugs in the magnifying glass that they had to help her see these up close while staying away!

Our second class was supposed to be trail riding, but due to the rain, the trails were VERY wet and some of the water in certain parts of the creek had rose so it wasn't safe for us.

Thankfully we got into David Stoke's class.  He was a riot!

Callie loved it because right off the bat he talked about turtles!  She was hoping to see a turtle while we were scooping the pond, but we didn't see any...thankfully he had some.

We learned how turtles roll over too!  This one was great to watch because he REALLY got his head into it!  

He was very knowledgeable about his turtles!

Callie loved holding and feeling the turtle shell, but she enjoyed putting it on her back best!  This was her idea too :)

Time for snakes :)  Callie told me right away that she didn't want to touch the snakes.  So we started with the snake skins...that she liked.

Then he pulled out his albino snake - now that was cool!  So cool that Callie said she wanted to TOUCH it!  WAY TO GO :)  I was so proud!  And grossed out, but I wasn't going to tell her that.

After that she was a rock star - wanting to touch them all.  Notice how far back she was sitting on her chair :)

I love this picture too - she was so excited but also had to be far enough away from the snakes head.  She was listening when he talked about snakes biting and snakes being poisonous! 

CHECK THIS OUT!  Yes, I held this snake for her!  It was slimy, gross, and it was looking into my eyes saying "I'm going to take one really good bite out of you and then haunt you in your dreams!"  Josh took one look at this photo and said, "Wow, Cori, your eyes are huge here..." gee I wonder why :)

Callie loved the turtles.

Taking a snack and water rest :)

Our last class was singer/author Douglas Wood!

We listened to him sing songs, sang along with him, and he told us stories - that he wrote :)

Callie was getting tired by this point, but still very happy to have met him :)

At the end, we went upstairs, explored their displays a little, she laid on the bear :) and she "Stamped" animal prints!  Because she finished all 3 sessions that she needed to, she was given a reusable bag with lots of goodies inside for her :)

She was infatuated with this rock at the end as well :)  She wanted her picture on it, because she had seen so many other kids taking their picture on it, but as soon as I put her up there - she wanted down :)

The EcoBlitz was so much fun and we will for sure be going back in the future!  They did an incredible job preparing this wonderful day and Callie learned a lot :)