1st Steps/Gentry Safari

Okay...this wasn't a planned announcement on this post BUT Reid took his FIRST STEPS tonight!!!! The past couple of days he has taken one step and fallen but tonight he took multiple steps. He walked to Daddy and then later he walked to Mommy. He was SO PROUD of himself and we made such a big deal about it that Lilly had to walk back and forth between Matt and I too. (We made a huge deal for her too...haha.)

Back to the originally planned post. Yesterday we had the best trip to the Gentry Wild Wilderness Safari!! BEST TRIP. I should warn that there are a bajillion pictures in this post but they are ones that you can just scan through so it isn't as long as it looks! This particular place has a drive-through safari and then a petting zoo/feeding area. First, we did the drive-through safari part..... I should note that there are signs everywhere telling you to keep your windows up at all times. We didn't obey....Reid loved hanging out the window looking at the animals. (We did roll up our windows any time we came upon bigger animals.)

They had these crazy flamingo like birds.

These deer were literally like 2 feet from our car! One actually came up and stuck it's head in our window.

Lilly was flipping out! She was so excited!!

Okay, this is an Ostrich...you will have to read the next caption to see what Lilly calls it.

This is a peacock....or as Lilly calls it, "a cockpea". She calls the Ostriches "big cockpeas". Haha. We laughed all day over this. From now on, that is what I will call them as well.

These buffalo were HUGE!

Lilly just kept saying "WOWWW!!"

I should mention that I was just using my regular camera lens...no fancy zoom used in any of these photos! These animals are just roaming around and can (and most do) come right up to your car.

Look at the antlers on that bad boy!

Lilly helping Daddy drive through the safari. She would get mad at him when he actually had to steer the car. Haha. Grandparents don't freak out...we only go maybe 5 mph through the safari.

I actually touched this GORGEOUS animal. Actually she touched me as I was feeding her a piece of bread. You aren't supposed to feed the animals in this part but you can feed the zebras in the feeding area so I bent the rule a little bit. All of the sudden we heard this animal cry....

and this baby zebra popped up out of the grass. We had no idea it was there beforehand. SO AWESOME!! Nowhere else around here can you have this type of experience!!!!!

This camel looking into our car. Hilarious! We did not feed the camels because last time I was there I did and it kicked my car--hard enough to leave a small dent!!

Reid got his turn at driving too!

I don't know what it is about this picture that just makes me laugh.

LOVED this shaggy faced cow-looking thing.

Napping camel right beside the car.

We drove by the tigers right as they were having lunch! (As you can see they are in cages.) Lilly roared as loud as she could every time we saw a tiger. By the end of the tigers, Reid started roaring too. We made some really good memories!!

Can you find the alligator?

Rhino

Lilly kept trying to give the animals some sweet tea. We didn't let her. I am glad she is STARTING to understand the sharing concept though.

Prairie Dogs

This warthog (?) was sitting right at the end of the safari.

This snake was HUGE. I was going to hold it by myself but I chickened out at the end...I said, "just stay in the picture and don't let go!" Matt called me a snake wrangler for the rest of the day. (c:

Oh, I forgot to mention that MoMo came to town and she went with us along with Jackson, Ethan, and Emma. Lilly touched the snake with one finger and was done!

Sitting on the lion statue.

Sucker break.

They have a baby barn there. There were baby monkeys, tigers, and lions. This monkey was eating yogurt. Haha.

Sweet little lion cubs.......

that you got to pet!!!!

I also got to play with and pet baby tigers. Which is cool but not as cool as......

being BIT BY A TIGER!! That is right folks--I got bit by a tiger! This little guy bit my hand (I'm fine--didn't even hurt) and I said, "I just got bit by a tiger" and the trainer said, "No--you just got attacked and bit by a tiger!!" Haha. So there you have it! I even have a mark!

Lilly screams "MOOOOOOO" every time she sees a cow--even more now that we have been to the zoo--like in all her animal books when she sees a cow, she screams "MOOOOO".

The baby camels. She wanted to feed them bread, but she would drop it and cry every time they went to get it from her.

So we compromised with this.

Another cockpea!!! Hehehehe.

Onto the petting zoo! There were goats,

pigs,

what I refer to as "the Elvis chicken",

and the coolest thing ever...kangaroos!!! We had so much fun and created so many memories that I will cherish forever! If you are in the area, I totally recommend going--but make sure you go on a cool day so the animals are out and about!

After the safari, we went to lunch...can you guess what Lilly ate???

spaghetti!

Ethan shared his coke with Reid. Reid went after it!!

Then, to end the night we went swimming at my sister's. Busy, wonderful, GREAT day!