San Diego Wild Animal Park 5/19/09

We decided that we needed a break. Monte took a day off so we could go to the park before school let out and not on a weekend. The place is still pretty crowded even in the middle of the week. We had a wonderful time.

Lily totally notices all of the animals. The first animals we stopped to see were the meerkats and she could have just stayed there all day. She'd tap on the glass, point and say key-ee (kitty).

We then saw the baby cheetah in the nursery. Born February of this year. I now really regret not going more often. I even heard that they had a baby rhino in the nursery for about 5 weeks. Both babies had been abandoned by their mothers. It turns out if a cheetah cub is born as a single, the Mom's abandon the single cub. This Cheetah will become an ambassador animal for the Park. I don't know about the rhino, we missed all of the juicy details on it.

There was a giant snake in an enclosure near the nursery, Noah really dug the snake. Ewww. Us girls checked out the cheetah for a bit longer while the boys went to see the snake.

Next was the petting corral. Both Noah and Lily liked this a lot.

We then went to have some lunch. You will see a picture of a very large bird. Well, this bird jumped onto the table a mere 2 inches from my FACE and STOLE a chicken strip! I yelped. Noah and Lily didn't even notice. Lily was busily eating some cutie slices and Noah was looking at a juice box when it happened. S t u p i d bird.

We then took a walk down by the little water play area. The kids had a blast running around and getting wet. Lily practiced her escape artist abilities and Noah ran and ran, while Momma clicked away with her camera. Daddy was on Lily retrieval duty.

We got dried off, walked down by the lions and headed home.

Wonderful, wonderful day! Enjoy the pictures.

Oh, one picture of the kiddo's first experience with bath paint. Momma drew the faces! And of course, it isn't the Krol shot without the kids in the dirt!

WAP 5/19/09