Wild Life!

by | Mar 31, 2009 | Field Trips, Nature | 9 comments

Yesterday we went on another field trip SAFARI!!!

More specifically, we visited a drive-through zoo, located on 600 acres, containing over 500 animals in their natural habitat, that roam freely (for the most part) as they do in the wild!

There were four of us moms (Marci, Amy, Elm, and I) with 15 of our children. We all piled into two of our vehicles to drive-through the park. The girls (and baby Ben) all went with Amy and Elm, and Marci and I had the boys. Yep… we got to experience the wildlife INSIDE the van, as well as OUTSIDE! 😉

I uploaded my pictures to the computer and was shocked to find that I took TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVEN pictures!! Yikes!!!! Lots of them are duplicates of the same animals — trying to get that hard to capture “perfect picture”… Nevertheless, even though I promise not to post ALL of them, I have a feeling this post may end up having quite a few pictures… =)

The 4.5 mile trek through the park begins with animals from Africa.

Right: Addax ~ Left: Gemsbok

African Lion

Did you know that a lion’s roar can be heard from 5 miles away?



Giraffes ~ That last guy was sticking his tongue out at us!


Check out the teeth on the Hippopotamus!

Next up was The Americas.
Here we were able to see a Bald Eagle, Waterbuck, Turtles, American Bison, Brown Bears, Llamas, Aoudad (Barbary Sheep), Roosevelt Elk, to name a few!


While we were trying to watch a couple of the bears fighting, we had a little bear fight break out in the car… Well, not exactly, though one of the boys did have the window shut on his little head! Poor guy! For a minute there they got a bit crazier… I was starting to wonder if we would survive the drive, but then, listening to their commentary about the animals was hilarious!

Last stop was Asia.

Tons to see here as well including: Tibetan Yaks, nilgai, Sarus Cranes, Silka Deer, Gibbons, Bactrian Camels, Rhea, and lots more…

Check out this cool looking Camel lying on the side of the road.


Here are some White Fallow Deer.

We were disappointed that we didn’t get to drive-thru the Cheetah and Tiger areas, which are only open on the weekends right now, but there were plenty of other animals to see. However, we did get to see one cheetah that was in “The Village” after we got out to eat lunch and walk around.

These voices of these two “White Handed Gibbons” were used in the old original Jungle book movie.

That little tidbit of information was included in a lecture an impromptu “field trip presentation” we received for letting our children feed the ducks some wheat bread, which the Gibbons then tried to get on the diets of zoo ducks and Gibbons… 😉


Before we left the kids even got to pet a turtle and a ferret, even though we didn’t have time to head to the petting zoo.

I also have a few cute pictures from the playground. I am out of time right now, but I’ll end with a couple group photos!


It was a FULL day, and I was am still exhausted, but I am pretty sure everyone had a wonderful time!

9 Comments

  1. Regina

    look how cute you all are!! this makes me sad. i cant believe we never went there when we lived there.
    cant wait to see you guys next week!!
    r

    Reply
  2. Nancy Carabio Belanger

    Reminds me of the drive-through zoo we went to once in Texas where the giraffe stuck his looooong tongue inside our car into the food cup and was slobbering all over my husband at the wheel. While I was videotaping the whole thing, he was laughing and you can hear me squealing because I was so grossed out. Ah, memories!

    Reply
  3. regan

    i am so glad you took those twohundredandfiftyseven pictures! that’s my kinda gal! i am loving all those awesome animals and kids and friends too!

    Reply
  4. Sarah

    You’ve been on some pretty cool field trips lately! The kids (and moms =) look like they had a blast!

    Reply
  5. elizabeth

    Very cool! Our family is planning a trip into Oregon this September. We going to put this on our “to do” list.
    Thanks and God bless!

    Reply
  6. Mimi

    I’ve been there, but I was quite little.

    Great photos.

    Reply
  7. Angela

    What a fun day for you all. Beautiful kids, beautiful animals, and BEAUTIFUL moms!

    ~Angela

    Reply
  8. Aubrey

    That looks amazing! I heard that the “boy” car was a little crazy! Now having two girls and two boys, I can appreciate the differences! 😉

    That is a good looking group of kids and of moms, too! It reminds me of how disappointed I am to be missing you guys by only a week or so! Maybe another time!

    Reply
  9. Trina

    The kids and I had such a fun time looking at these pictures! We went a couple of years ago when we were visiting down there, so looking at the pix brought back lots of memories!

    Reply

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