Lake Tobias

Saturday was a GORGEOUS day! It was the complete opposite of Thursday - the sun was shining, the temperatures were heavenly, and it was all around lovely. That morning, Nonie & Poppy picked up the Bean to take him out for his birthday. They went to the Hands On House and then out to lunch, where he enjoyed a salad (his choice). While they were gone, Caleb played outside with us while we did yard work. We cut back everything that had bloomed and died this summer and did some more weeding. We took a couple trips to the 'dump' or compost place in Manheim Township that accepts yard waste for a fee.

When Joshua returned, I suggested to Shawn that we head to Lake Tobias. They're only open weekends after Labor Day, and who knew what the weather would be like going forward. He agreed, so he got the world's fastest shower while I did a scrub down with Dial soap (we don't want any more poison, that's for sure!) and we headed out the door. The boys napped on the way to Halifax, which is roughly an hour away. We had missed their morning fall festival (which I didn't even know was happening), but we got right in line for the Safari tour. A picture of one of their buses is above, so you get the idea. It's completely open so you can see out.

We saw many cool things along the way. The last time we went, it was first thing in the morning so ALL the animals came up to the bus to be fed. You could tell we were at the end of the day because many of them didn't want anything to do with us. But, it was still fun. If you look closely in the picture above, you'll see a white deer. It's not an albino, according to the bus driver, because its eyes are a normal color. It is just a freak of nature. ;-) The pictures below are of their z'donks - half donkey, half zebra.

Here's little Caleb Luke. He does NOT love sitting still, but he enjoyed throwing crackers at the animals. Crackers are $1 a pack there, and well worth it for the enjoyment the kids (and us!) get out of feeding the animals.

Here are some more creatures we saw:

You'll notice the tiny baby in the picture below:

Joshua loved when the beasts would eat his crackers. He'd often throw them and watch while they came and ate them up. He did also have a few eat right out of his hand, as did I.

I forget what they called the creatures below, but they are half bison and half cows. They're trying to breed them to see if they can get leaner meat, or something like that.

I loved this picture below of the boys feeding the animals:

The ride was extremely bumpy, so this picture was blurry, but I loved the smile on Joshua's face. He was THRILLED to be there!

Here's Daddy trying to wrestle Caleb into his seat just before we took off.

Look at the horns!

An animal finally ate Joshua's cracker that he held out!

This beast made a TON of noise while we were watching. She said he's the stud and all the girls flock to him since it's mating season.

Joshua & I sat together on the bus, since Shawn's better at keeping Caleb entertained.

Here's the "noisy" guy again.

The little white guy below is only seven days old!

After the safari ride was over, we walked the grounds to see the other animals. I thought this picture of Shawn & Caleb Luke was nice.

We saw the capybeara eating their dinner. These are the world's largest rodents. That's right - that's a rodent! YUCK!

The picture below is of the tiger. Because the sun was shining, I didn't get a real good shot of him.

And here's the zebras. Aren't they beautiful?

I thought this sign by the alligators was cute.

I love my Bean!

Here's a bear. I saw people throwing popcorn into the bears, who started all but climbing the walls to get more.

And, the boys loved the chickens the best. I kid you not! The chickens were out of their coup running around, and the boys thought this was hysterical. Here's little Caleb chasing one. We warned them not to touch one for fear that they would get pecked.

Joshua ran over to Daddy, who scooped him up into a great big hug. I love this picture as well.

Before long, we heard that it was nearing closing time. So we began walking back to our car, having seen almost everything. When we were close to where my SUV was, we allowed the boys to play at the playground, since they had begged to on the way in.

And there was some left over hay from the morning's events that the boys had fun with when they were done playing on the playground equipment. I thought these pictures were cute as well.

It had been a nice time. We drove back home, ate a late dinner, got the boys bathed, and put them to bed. Thank you, God, for gorgeous weather, for fall, and for family.