A Day in the Wild

Well, not "the wild," more like a wildlife center. On Friday, we drove about two hours away to Fossil Rim. It's a place where you can drive through the center in your own car and see lots of different animals. We arrived later than we had hoped (11 am), so we were worried that all the animals would be napping far away after their morning feed. But the weather was beautiful, it was the first sunny day after two days of rain, and all the animals were out. We saw so many different animals and it was such a fun time!

We drove two cars but we left one in the parking lot. We took out all the car seats and piled in the van. Kyle chose to sit with Grandpa. 

We checked off all the animals we saw in the brochure. We didn't see any wolves... but no one complained!

First off, the ostrich. We were all a little wary about these guys.

Karis waving to some ostriches in the distance.

Makena enjoying the view.

Fallow deer waiting for some feed. We were only allowed to hand feed the giraffes. For all others, we were instructed to throw the food onto the ground. 

So excited to see all the animals!

An Addax which are critically endangered.

Derek drove us through the center. It took us about 3 hours to make our way through it.

The Aoudod approaching.

Happy chaos! The kids loved being able to move around the van without seat belts.

I loved watching this guy see all the animals for the first time.

Waterbucks

This guy just opened his mouth and lapped his tongue around, waiting for some feed. 

We were all excited to see the giraffes. They were towards the end and we were saving our feed for them. When we got there, they were all hanging out in the distance. We thought they weren't going to come to us. Then Jeremy hung out the window and started shaking the brown paper bag of feed.

And then one by one, they started making their way to us!

There was a giraffe in our car! It was awesome!! 

And then we met up with some zebras. 

They weren't shy either and stuck their heads in the van.

They were beautiful!

We saw other animals including white rhinos, (caged) cheetahs, gazelles, other horned deer-like animals, cranes, and turkeys.

On our way back, we stopped to eat at a steakhouse. Grandpa wanted to celebrate Julie's birthday!

A Fun Week With Family

Last week, the Lee family came to visit Texas! Julie brought the three littles to spend their Spring Break with us. Sadly, Uncle Marzano and the big boys could not come. 

The Lee gang arrived close to midnight on Sunday. We spent most of Monday at home as everyone was tired and just excited to be together. 

 After lunch, we headed to the park to enjoy the warm day.

Playing peek-a-boo with Emo over and over again...

  

On Tuesday, while our kids went to school, the cousins went to see a movie. We met them after school and played in the mall. On our way out, the girls took a picture with the Easter bunny. Karis was excited to take a picture and got onto the bunny's lap. Makena was so nervous to be around the bunny but was able to stay for the picture because Jessi held her hand.

That night, we enjoyed a big Texas BBQ dinner at Hard Eight. 

We brought Flat Jacob with us as we're helping him with a school project.

After a couple of warm days, it rained on Wednesday. We took everyone to church to show them around. We spent the rest of the afternoon at home waiting Grandpa to arrive. 

On Thursday, while the kids went to school, Grandpa and the Lee family went to Ft. Worth to tour the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. That evening, we all went out to a Korean restaurant for dinner and Yogurtland for dessert.

Friday was the most fun day and it requires its own post because of the large amounts of photos I'm about to post!

The Lee family left late Saturday afternoon. Grandpa stayed with us until Monday. He went to church with us and took us out to lunch afterwards.

It was so fun to have my family see where we live, stay in our home and visit our church. We miss them already. We hope they'll come back to see us soon!