San Diego Zoo Safari Park

It being Rachel’s birthday, she got to pick our event of the day.  This one was extra-fun because it was something that the kids and I hadn’t checked off our list yet.  Hooray for new adventures!

“Jambo!” the signs exclaim as you walk up to the park.  Both Jake and Erik were excited about this, having heard the word frequently while in Iraq from the Ugandan guards they had there. 


We start off with the birds.  That blue crested fellow in the middle was the one that chased Naomi down.

Not a fan of the pretty pigeon, but completely unfazed by the giant rhino (statue).

                      
Let the tour continue.

          
The meerkats were fun to watch but I think the best job in the whole park belonged to whoever got to be the mouthpiece behind this interactive zebra.  Slightly sassy and very well-animated, “Robert” answered kid’s questions, told jokes and relayed bits of zebra trivia to his captivated audience.  “Goodbye, zebra!” said Logan; “Goodbye, human!” said Robert.

         
Fun with Uncle Erik and Aunt Rachel.

       
More fabulous animal-related antics.
             
Getting ready for the big tram ride.

  
Here come the animals!  I’m trying really hard to spare you a picture of every species that was out there, but it was pretty spectacular and a beautiful sunny day, perfect for photos.

Here’s the landscape for the park.  Not a bad view, eh?

                         
Spring means animal babies.  The baby rhino is looking shy, but it’s there.  If you go back up to the water buffaloes, there are a couple of calves in that picture as well. 

                    
We got a good view of the lion from the tram but then managed to catch an even better view afterwards.  Naomi is working on her roar.  (Thus far, a rather uninspiring thing.)

                        
If you think this post is getting long, imagine how the kids were feeling as we pushed towards lunch time.  But there was just SO much to see!

 
I think we’ve established that I have an odd fascination with elephants.  But look now at that first picture; glance back and forth a few times from the random woman’s head to the elephant.  Doesn’t that thing look like it’s about two stories tall?

The best part: just as we were getting ready to move on, we hear a joyful, loud trumpet and this (I’m assuming) mother elephant comes running out with two baby elephants following behind.  It was this great little family reunion moment where you could honestly tell that they were so happy and excited to be back outside with the herd.  Very cool to watch!

   
I love the very different personalities that the gorillas appear to have in these pictures.  I totally read the first one as “giving him the stink eye” and the second as “too cool to care”.  What’s your take?

Almost done.  Don’t worry; we’ll find our way home.

         
Coming back around to the front, we run into the birds again, with some water babies this time.

   
Later that afternoon, AFTER naps (hooray!), the kids practice their synchronized ice-cream consumption.  Now dip, and lift, and taste, and swallow.  Good!  Now dip . . .

Whew!  Longest post yet?  Tell me, do the longer ones take forever to load on your computers or is it pretty smooth?  I thought about breaking this up into two posts for those who might have slower internet connections.  Would that be better for you?

Easter Graces

     
I got ahead of myself and apparently left these out of the last round.  They don’t really belong here but I wanted to show them to you anyway.

         
Once we got home from church on Easter Sunday, for some reason Logan wanted to practice “typing” . . . then he wanted to practice taking pictures.  (The slightly fuzzy flowers were from the farmer’s market.)

                    

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of the afternoon’s activities and artistic endeavors were decidedly more traditional.

                             
                             
Both the kids really got into the egg decorating this year, which was lots of fun even if the stickers didn’t really stick onto the eggs as well as they should have (read: they didn’t stick at all).

The finished product.  You’ll notice one of them didn’t survive the process.

                             
Sleeping beauty.  When I snapped these, I was actually moving around her room in an attempt to wake her up so that we could go the neighborhood potluck and egg hunt, but my typically light sleeper was out cold.

            
All of Logan’s buddies were out . . .

including this lovely lady who might just be Logan’s best bud at this point.

   
Once Naomi was fully awake and her belly was full of snacks, she was ready to jump into the fun.  “Who, me?” she asks.  Yes, you Naomi-chan.  Peek-a-boo!

                             
The kids had a moderate haul, which was okay by me.  Although we did find two more eggs still hiding in the tree line more than a week later.

I know Easter was a while ago, but I hope yours was good as well!

Old Faces in New Places

Visiting season has commenced and the California residence of the Wildes is open for business!

                 
Your welcome will inevitably look something like this because, you know, my kids are simply starved for someone to read to them.

      
With a little luck, you might get to see some of these sorts of shenanigans early in your trip.  (Notice the lotion smeared on Naomi’s pants and shirt and on the mirror.)

But don’t worry, we’ll get you to some place that looks like this very soon.

                        
Alternate views of the same location.

     
A visit to the pier and the Pacific makes for a simple and sweet introduction to the local area.

                        
Accompanied by your favorite California-dwelling kiddos, of course.

   
There was early morning fog most mornings that Erik and Rach were here, but it generally burned off by mid-morning and stayed clear the rest of the day; it seems as though that’s pretty typical because we saw the same thing at the end of the summer when we first got here.  By the way, that’s Casa Romantica up on the hill; you may remember it.

                     
Are you aching for some sunshine and ready to check ticket prices yet?