Lake Tobias

On Saturday, July 27, I woke up feeling sore. I was still planning on going to the gym, but Shawn said yes to going to Lake Tobias instead. It was extremely last minute, so I quickly packed a lunch for us all and made some eggs for breakfast and we were on the road. Unfortunately, we got there about half an hour after opening.

We got right in line to purchase crackers for the animals and a popcorn snack for the kids.

Then we got in line for the safari tour. It was already pretty long!

So, we took some pictures to pass the time.

Finally it was our turn to get on the bus!

You'll notice Joshua's second top front tooth coming in in the above picture! We've been praying for those teeth and they are starting to appear!

Shawn was a little concerned that there were two parents to three children. So, he gave Joshua a firm talk about being careful around the animals. He noted that they have horns and can poke out eyes when we're not watching and being careful. Unfortunately, instead of just caution, it built actual fear into Joshua who didn't want to feed the animals for fear of becoming blind. :( I said next time we'll have to come up with a happy medium as I tried to coax Joshua into relaxing a little.

Luckily, we were the first ones on the bus, so we got to sit in the front row - the very best seats for this tour so we could hear the tour guide and see all the animals!

Here was our very informative tour guide Dylan (I think).

This was our first animal sighting!

These ostrich-like birds (are they Emus?) came right after the llama. They were all hungry for crackers!

Ryan thought maybe he should enjoy a cracker, too, but he didn't eat them this time. Joshua just noted how Ryan is starting to put less things in his mouth immediately. Yet another sign how big my little man is getting!

Here are the rhea birds, I believe.

Do you see the tiny babies in the picture below? I thought they were so cute!

Shawn joked with the older two boys that they weren't allowed to let the animals eat our little buddy Ryan.

Here are some more animals. I love the open air bus ride to check them all out!

We started feeding the ones who came close enough to get crackers. :)

Joshua was still nervous about the horns on some of them.

We were still having fun, though, learning about the different species that live on this "farm."

My boys needed a haircut, can you tell?

Ryan is Daddy's little buddy now.

Joshua sat with me most of the time, and Caleb went back and forth between the two when the bus would stop.

Caleb, especially, LOVES animals. He gets the biggest kick out of feeding them!

We continued on our journey until an animal came onto the bus when it stopped at one point.

Since we were in the front seat, we had the best view!

Ryan wasn't so sure he wanted this thing to come onto the bus with us!

Ryan put his hands up to shove the thing's face away from him. Instead, his fingers went right up its nostrils!

The animal did not even budge! Our little man was terrified!

He was like "I'm not lunch!!!" If you see the hand coming through, the other kids started feeding it crackers, rather than Ryans. :)

We could not stop laughing. Soon enough it was time to go, so the tour guide helped guide the animal down. We still giggled. Is this picture not priceless?

As soon as the bus started moving, Ryan was happy again.

Caleb LOVES to get pictures taken of himself.

This lovely thing came on the bus as well, and it dripped snot all over the floor. YUCK!

Caleb didn't mind - he fed him a cracker!

Here was another guest:

And more animals, along with a good shot of what the buses look like.

After our bus ride ended, we walked around the rest of the 'zoo.' This was some sort of special day (which we didn't know when we decided to go). There were little animal parades and free face paintings (which my boys were NOT interested in) and other activities planned to celebrate.

Our first stop was the reptile building. We didn't stay for the entire reptile show (we weren't sure that Ryan would sit that long), but we got to see all the animals on display.

We even touched a snake and an alligator!

After the reptile building, we walked around the farm some more. Here are the boys chasing chickens.

And Ryan loves pigs!

Here's a kangaroo or wallaby or something:

The bears were napping:

So was the tiger by this point:

We enjoyed checking out the zebra:

Can you see the alligator in the picture below?

The monkey:

And the lady lion:

Soon, it was time to go to the car to grab our picnic lunch. The kids all ate well, as did we. Then we let them play on the playground for a little bit.

Then, we decided to head home. It was after Ryan's typical nap time, and we had seen most of Lake Tobias by then. It was a fun family day!