Safari Sunday

For over a month, my neighbor Jenna and I have been trying to plan a trip out to Pine Mountain to the Wild Animal Safari for a weekend. That was when it was raining almost every day, then we both had vacations and life and what-all-else and it never happened. Last night she called me to chat and threw out the idea of going today. It worked! We loaded up the kids this morning and headed out.
They rented one of the vans (old and nasty, but perfect for feeding muddy, drooly animals), her husband Jason drove and she and I sat in the back to child-wrangle. Thank goodness for the safety bars on the window--Riley was ready to jump out and join the wild. A bunch of deer and pigs greeted us in the front, shoving muddy, snotty, slobbery noses through the slats to beg for food.

Then there were the zebras. We were warned not to hand feed them because they especially like to bite. Awesome.

There were so many babies--baby deer, baby pigs. Riley kept saying "baby baby" out the window. Look at this precious little guy!

The giraffe was my favorite. He stuck his huge tongue out and wrapped it around the food pellet (and consequently, my hand) and left a huge spit string. Super gross, but I wasn't freaked that he'd bite me since his teeth were practically a foot away.

Going up?

Fresh from a mud-bath.

The boys didn't feed anything from their hands, but threw plenty out to the animals. I was a little paranoid about fingers getting bitten and James is cautious, so he kept his distance. Riley kept reaching out and sticking his fingers in slime and making me nervous.

The buffalo was by far the drooliest.

Camel.

The bulls loved Andrew (Jenna's son). And the buffalos loved Jason (her husband). In several different parts of the park, they came up to the driver's window (the front windows didn't have the bars there) and he got a spit bath. Over and over.

Llama! This one's for you Kelly! And Dad! haha!

This one didn't mind having his picture taken [since he was getting fed].

Once we made it through the drive thru portion, we got out, washed hands about a thousand times and stopped so the kids could have snacks (yay for their cooler!). Then they had a walk-thru area with some more animals. My camera battery crapped out on me so I had to rely on my phone, so the quality is less than stellar.

They lions and tigers and bears! oh my...

Monkey James!

The obscene baboon. James kept commenting on the "red thing". Oh Lord I did not want to explain that one...

The snake house was James's favorite. In the gift shop afterward, he begged me for this life-size striped snake. All I could think about was cleaning the toy room or making the bed and finding that thing in it one day. Shivers.

One of the workers had a baby alligator, whose name was "Bubba", and James and Andrew got to pet it.

Riley stayed in the stroller for the walk-thru part and didn't even fight it. I guess all the animal adventures wore him out!

The kids just loved it and James carried on about all the animals on the way home. I'm really glad we went. How many people can say they fed a giraffeor a zebra from their car?