Safari

On Monday morning Bethany, Erin, and I took all of the kids (8 kids total) to Ohio to experience a mini safari. We got there before they opened and had to wait in line behind a huge group of Amish families. There was one little Amish boy that kept trying to sit and play with our kids. He was so cute dressed up in long pants and a nice dress shirt with suspenders I wanted to get a picture of him sitting next to all of our boys in their rough looking shorts and t-shirts but I didn't want to offend anybody so I didn't. His Mom had to keep escorting him back to their group and I was pleased to see that even little Amish boys have to be told the same thing over and over again too! I thought for sure that Wyatt was going to ask why all of the Amish people were dressed alike and wearing hats, but thankfully he didn't seem to care or notice.

The kids got to visit a petting zoo and feed some animals while we waited for our jeep safari. When the kids approached the goats it was like a flock of seagulls descending on people eating at the beach. The kids were nervous at first because some of the animals were a little aggressive, but they finally figured out how to feed the animals without being scared of loosing a finger and didn't want to leave even when they announced that our jeep was ready.

The jeep took us on a 40 minute winding jeep ride through pastures full of huge exotic animals that the kids could feed from a bucket. There were camels, elk, ostrich, zebras, emu, longhorn steers, deer, and lots more that I didn't recognize. The tour guide on our jeep has a speaker and made announcements about each area including facts about the animals, but I had a hard time hearing anything that she said above the noise of all of our kids! I couldn't help but wonder if the jeep with the Amish people was quiet and orderly...ours was not!

Each kid got a bucket full of food that they could use to feed the animals by hand, by dumping on the floor of the jeep, or throwing into the mouths of the animals that approached. If the kids threw the food on the jeep floor, the animals would stick their heads under the seats of the jeep and lick it off. My kids loved watching the animals lick the food off the floor so they dumped their buckets under the seats and lifted their feet up and laughed like crazy when the animals gobbled it up. When their buckets were empty they would try and steal buckets of food from the other people in our jeep, so I had to intervene a lot!

The trip was a huge hit. The kids talked about it all evening!We can't wait to go back and I have a feeling that we will make it a yearly visit.