Out of Africa

Mommom and Papa took our family to a place called out of Africa this past week.  It was so much fun!

Trying to get a family picture (plus little Sawyer) is always a fun time!

I don't think we got one picture where everyone was looking the same direction.  Oh, well.  The kids had fun on the safari ride.  My kids chickened out and had nothing to do with feeding the giraffes.  Sawyer and Bear did a good job enjoying the up-close-and-personal time with the animals.  

Jon Mark fed the giraffe with his lips.  The giraffe gave him a big kiss.  Gross.  I used my fingers, thank you very much.  And, none of my kids would give it a try.

We learned that zebras spend their entire lives either pregnant or nursing.  A female zebra gets pregnant the day after giving birth and is pregnant for about 13 months.  Crazy!  I hope zebras are better than humans at controlling their fluctuating hormones.  I've heard of mad cow disease, if I was a zebra I think I'd be the first to have mad zebra disease from being pregnant so many times.  Haha!  Sorry, that was a lame joke.

Joshua has the biggest camera smile of all!

The kids were fascinated by the tiger splash show.  I think it was the highlight for me as well.  The tigers are huge animals and it's amazing just how high they can jump.  Another highlight was watching a lioness get very mad at one of the zookeepers for not throwing her food high enough into the cage.  I thought she'd break through the chain-link fence and have him for dinner instead.  It is only a chain-link fence afterall.

Joshua and Sawyer got to feed the tigers.  Joshua had to be bribed with a candy bar, but he stepped up and did it.

Luke skipped his nap.  I thought for sure he'd konk out eventually, but he didn't.  He was REALLY grumpy that night at dinner and the next day as well.

Sawyer and Mercedes are such good friends.  I'm glad the Larsens have moved to AZ.

Here is Mommom and Hannah.

Luke and Bear have such a cute little bond.  They give the term "double trouble" new meaning on a whole new level!

Mercedes was hesitant about going at first because Joshua had convinced her that the lions and tigers and bears would eat her.  But, she had such a good time that today as I was posting this post she pointed at the pictures and said, "please can we go back there today?  And, we will spend the night with the tigers because they are in a cage and can't get us.  We will just lay out a blanket and sleep next to the cages, alright, Mom?"

It was a fun trip!