The Wilds

We spent the better part of our Saturday on a Safari Adventure at The Wilds.  The Wilds is about an hour and a half outside of Columbus, OH so we picked up our darling in-laws, hopped in a van together and made the trek out to Cumberland, OH.  Our day had called for rain but it turned out to be an incredible, unseasonably cool, and beautiful day!

We got tickets for an open-air tour so when we got to the facility, we hopped out of our van and on to an open air bus that took us on a safari through 10,000 acres of an animal conservation area.  We saw a TON of animals and learned so much about the animals and the conservation efforts The Wilds continues to demonstrate.  It was really incredible!  Our tour guide, Emma, explained that the cooler temperatures would keep the animals pretty active and it seemed like it did.  We saw nearly all the animals that they have and the environment was just stunning.  Beautiful sky and land as far as the eye could see!  Rolling hills and bodies of water.  The sun peeking out behind white, puffy clouds.  Country life is my kind of living.  In a past life I was definitely a farm girl.

Kate and Mimi secure a spot on the open air bus!

So do me and Maya!

Forget the wild animals, Maya sees a butterfly!!

Bison from the farm next door that The Wilds manage.

Kate was reviewing the brochure of animals we
would see and checking them off as we went!

These are endangered Persian Onagers, a sub-species of wild ass,
or donkey.

This is an endangered Greater One-Horned Asian Rhino.  Before
the keeper gave him some food, he was raring to chase those
Persian Onagers on the hill and our whole tour bus was excited to
watch!

Hello, rhino!

Even though the rhino has his back to the wild donkeys, they
still have one eye on him!

On one of our stops there was a quick walk to the water.

The endangered and beautiful cheetah.  Kate's favorite.
The cheetah is the fastest land mammal in the world,
but only captures its prey 50% of the time!

I thought it fitting that the two lovies on display at the ice cream
stand were Kate and Maya's favorites: the giraffe (Maya) and
the cheetah with a baby cheetah (Kate)!

No safari adventure is complete without treats!

Because, ice cream.  You know, #everylastdrop.

This Ostrich came right up to us!  They are the
largest birds in the world!

I was in the middle of eating a salad and thought
for sure it would start pecking at it!

Here's looking at you, kid!

Maya spots the giraffes!

There they are.  So majestic and beautiful.

The endangered Scimitar-Horned Oryx.  This animal has been
extinct in the wild since the mid-1980's.  The conservation
efforts at The Wilds try to send baby oryx born there to Chad
to be part of the World Herd that serves as the source for
reintroduction.  Science is incredible.

This view gives me peace.

The endangered Bactrian camel.  This camel has two humps,
and, unfortunately, there are less than 1,000 left in the wild.

Bubba camel.  But this one actually was a girl...

No safari is complete without a camel selfie!

Mary and Tom!

Safari goers.

Our little fam.

We had a really nice time.  Check out this list of animals that we saw, in addition to the ones in the photos above:

-Common Eland
-Fringed Eared Oryx
-Sable Antelope
-Budgerigar
-Red-Crowned Crane (endangered)
-Trumpeter Swan
-African Painted Dog (endangered) - these guys were adorable and fiesty!  Evidently they come up with a game plan to gang up on their prey and are successful 90% of the time!
-Bactrian Deer (endangered)
-Indochinese Silka Deer
-Pere David's Deer
-Southern White Rhino
-Banteng (endangered)
-Central Chinese Goral
-Grevy's Zebra
-Przewalski's Wild Horse (endangered)

I find it incredibly inspiring that we are doing the research to keep these animals thriving and surviving and trying to reintroduce some of them into their natural habitats.  Yes, humans.  Well done.

Member Mania at the Zoo

Yesterday and today the zoo hosted an event called Member Mania.  Anyone with a membership could get in an hour earlier (at 8 am) and they highlighted a specific area for viewing and activities.  We thought we'd partake in the events today and headed to view the highlight of the week - Africa - first thing!

We LOVE our zoo.  We are there often.  It's beautiful.  There are so many animals.  And, most importantly, the animals are well taken care of.  Yes, to the zoo!

Kate feeds the giraffes!

Maya does to...at an arm's length!

We caught our cheetah in mid yawn!  Good morn, cheetah!

Look at those teeth!

And back to classic beauty!

I guess it was a bit early for the animals!  They were all still
snoozing!

Climbing on the whale!

And, of course, a stop at the carousel!

Spoiler Alert

There are no groundhogs at the zoo.

I was hoping that there would be some fuzzy little guys there since it is Groundhog Day, but low and behold there are none.  There were some prairie dogs which I was willing to compromise with but we didn't see any of them so it was a groundhog type of animal fail for me.  Kate and I talked about groundhogs and we sang a little groundhog song, but that was our extent of celebrating this little holiday.

Note that Punxsatawney Phil did NOT see his shadow, indicating an early spring, but Buckeye Chuck (Phil's Ohio counterpart) DID see his shadow indicating six more weeks of winter... Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful and because I am perpetually cold I'm going to have to side with Phil on this one.  Fingers crossed!

Fortunately, we were able to see a bunch of other animals and explore some other areas of the zoo we had not visited before.  There were hardly any people at the zoo today so we got to get up close and personal to all of the exhibits with animals present.  It was nice.  And, speaking of animals, we got a great glimpse of the lions and the lion cubs!  They were all outside in an area that is "closed" for the winter but a zoo employee told Kate, Maya, and I that the lions might still be out so we decided to check them out.  I was amazed at how many cubs there were!  I thought there were only three but we counted five!  We also got to hear the lions roar which was pretty cool, if I do say so myself!

Maya was just darling throughout our zoo adventure.  We bundled her up in the stroller and shortly after we started walking around she fell asleep and slept for the rest of the time we were there.

It was nice to get outside again and even better to see some animals!

Happy Groundhog Day to you and hopefully we'll see that early Spring weather sooner rather than later!

When I asked Kate what animals she wanted to
see she said, "Lions!".  Thankfully they were out!
#momwin

Three adult lions and five lion cubs!

Our bundled one!

This picture just melts me.

And 10 minutes later, after being snug as a bug in
a rug, she was snoozing!

Checking out the aquarium!

And Manatee Bay!

It was feeding time so we got to see the manatees munching on
lettuce and watch the turtles and fish swimming by!

The Zoo: Like We Own It Edition

When my Mom and Grandma came to visit us, we bit the bullet and bought a zoo membership.  We had a membership a couple of years ago, but with both of us working, we didn't go as often as we would have liked, so we opted not to renew last year.  Since I'm home with the girls now, it made a lot more sense financially to pay for a membership and Brian and I know we will get our use with it.  We calculated 2.5 visits and the membership has paid for itself.

This is visit #2 for us, so next time we visit we are already ahead!

We took a different route at the zoo today.  We normally head up to North America and Africa - those are Brian's favorites, but since he was not with us, we decided to call the shots and head to the Congo and Australia & The Islands.  We found a carousel and the coolest play area ever, so while North America and Africa have their draws - polar bears, train rides, petting zoo, feeding the giraffes, the cheetah run, camel rides, etc. - the Congo and Australia area are just as cool!

We rode the carousel, had lunch outside, played on the enormous play gym, saw some cool monkeys, got WAY lost in the Congo as we were trying to leave (I realized I was the furthest away from the exit as I could possibly be at one point), and sat on a bronze kimono dragon, and we had a blast!  Once again, the weather was just phenomenal!

We were so happy to be able to spend the day outdoors!

Penguins!

All three girls on the carousel!

Note the photo below.  This is by far the largest outdoor play gym Kate has ever tackled.  It was massive, people, and I fully anticipated having to go in their myself, with Maya bundled against me, to save my first born.  But I was completely wrong.  Kate conquered this massive play area in no time and even asked me how to get to the "green" slide.  At first, I was really confused because I didn't see a green slide and she hadn't even gone down the red slide or the caterpillar slide.  Then I noticed, way in the back, the tallest, twistiest slide there was, and it was forest green.  So, while Kate got a-climbing, I walked her through where to head next to get to the tallest slide there.  (I felt like I was in a challenge on Survivor.)

I am constantly impressed with her no fear attitude and incredible physical abilities, but she is surely keeping her Mama on her toes!  That was a TALL slide...

1/3 of the outdoor play area!  And you can semi-see the green slide
in the back to the right of the caterpillar slide...

I thought this red one was tall and huge...Green had it beat!

Checking out the HUGE tortoise!

Kate was enthralled with this bronze kimono statue.

She used it as her mode of transportation and
decided to take it for a ride...

...she tried to lift its tail...

...she patted its head...

...and even decided that sitting on its head was a must!

We are so looking forward to these lazy zoo days!  A packed lunch, a ton of cool animals, and a humongous play area is right up our alley!  Now that we've got a good feel for the layout of the entire park, it kind of feels like "our" zoo.  In a just a few more visits we'll be walking around the place like we own it.  #cuzwedo