Safari Day

Today was field trip day and Carlos, Jeremiah, Oma and I went to the Natural Bridge Safari.  It was super cold, but we had a fabulous time.  We traveled through the safari in an open sided wagon (like a hay wagon without the hay) and the animals came right up to us and would stick their noses into our laps looking for food. Carlos had a fabulous time with the llamas.  The Llamas would trot right beside us trying to get some extra food.  They were very friendly.  The Ostrich were a little more scary because they would run up and try to peck at anything they could get their beak on. One came zooming up right at Rebekah and I yelled for her to duck just in time so he (or she) missed Rebekah’s neck and got the top of her jacket instead…whew…. that was a close call.  Other than the Ostrich the animals were pretty friendly.  The Camels were super friendly and we were able to feed and pet them for a pretty longtime.  Just for the record, Camels stink!  The two hump camels stole the entire bucket of food….bucket included!  They were greedy!!

I was really surprised at Jeremiah because he would point at the animals and bark (one of his new tricks….barking like a dog), but he was not at all afraid.  That was a surprise to me because he’s very scared of dogs and these animals were much larger.  He even tried to pet the llamas, but they were too fast and he did not have any food to keep them occupied.  Maybe he just felt safe sitting on my lap.

After the ride on the wagon we went to pet the goats and some baby llamas and got to watch the Black Spider Monkeys.  The monkeys were so interesting!  They were really playful and did all kinds of tricks for us.  The really cool part is that they use their tail as a fifth hand/arm to swing around the cage and they chirped like birds.

Carlos really enjoyed the day.  His favorite were the Kangaroos and the potbelly pigs.  For some reason he just loves pigs!

At dinner tonight Carlos was telling Stephen about our day and this is what he said about the Kangaroos:  Carlos said, “Papa, I see special rabbits and the baby went hop right in the ….living room or bed to nurse…..I’m not sure.”  Stephen asked, “did they have a pouch (making a circle motion over his tummy).  Carlos,“yes!!  But I never saw the baby come out.”