World Wildlife Zoo

Again I only have a few phone pics.

While in Arizona we visited the World Wildlife Zoo. It is quite big, and quite fun, but not quite worth the steep price to get in. In my opinion!

They have a large aquarium area, along with a really large zoo area. Plus...a fairly awesome petting zoo (which is where I took the majority of my phone pictures):




Sade made it a point to pet every single animal in the petting zoo. The deer loved her skirt and tried to eat it multiple times:








It was fairly picturesque:




They have a number of different extra activities that you can pay for including this sky ride:

Eric and Megan:



Me and the littles:





It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

We finished off the evening by eating at The Golden Corral (the kids and Eric's choice), and then driving home.

Quick, but great trip.

Eric's 43rd Birthday!

We have been hit with major computer woes (!!!) and consequently all aspects of my life have suffered, including (and especially) my blog. But in an effort to get back on track, I now present Eric's 43rd birthday celebration!

Some background: A bit before his birthday I discovered that the Seahawks would be playing in Arizona the day after his birthday. I determined that this would be the perfect gift and came up with an elaborate ruse that would get Eric off of work and still keep the secret of the game tickets. So, after getting confirmation that Eric could indeed go out of town for the needed days I ordered the tickets.

And then.......

10 minutes later the credit card company called him to verify the charge! Oh the humanity!! All of the lies I had told had been for naught. It was depressing. For me. I hate a ruined surprise.

Anyway...Eric was a good sport about it and pretended he didn't know.

We had him open the tickets before we went out to dinner so we could discuss the upcoming trip.

Acting surprised:




After arriving back home he opened the rest of the gifts, which included things like mouthwash, shoes and gum:



After present opening the lucky duck went to Young Men's. And I am not even using the term lucky duck sarcastically. I always LOVED going to Young Women's and Eric may love Young Men's ALMOST as much.

Upon arriving home it was cake time:



Happy Birthday Eric!

Gilcrease Bird/Nature Sanctuary

I don't fancy myself a huge bird fan, so when I proposed a trip to the Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary, also known as, The Gilcrease Bird Sanctuary, I didn't anticipate having a supremely great time. But we did!

First we visited the birds. As you do, at a bird refuge.



They have tons and tons of them. I never realized how delightful talking birds are. Especially when you are in a room with 50 of them and they all want to talk to you. It was awesome! And I  am not even saying that sarcastically.



Making a play for Eric's shirt:



Sade would dance in front of this birds cage, and it would mimic her movements:



Talking bird video:



While we were there, a lady brought a WHOLE BUNCH of produce from Smith's and we were lucky enough to be able to help them feed it to all of the geese and ducks:



There are quite a few other animals besides birds to visit with too. Sade was mighty afraid that this ostrich was going to get her:



This ostrich was ultra cooperative while we were taking pics:




Megan and emu. Also so cooperative! 



They have lots of other animals too, like turtles, miniature horses and llamas.



I LOVE a petting zoo, and this place has a pretty big one, filled with mostly goats and sheep:



This little one kept standing in the food bucket. The older goats didn't care for that very much and kept going over and butting him out.



Our favorite goat was named, "Diablo." He was born with a birth defect that caused his tongue to hang out of his mouth at all times:



Sade's reaction after witnessing a goat doing his business right next to her:



It is a total craze fest when you bring in food to feed them. They can't contain themselves.



This one just about knocked Jackson down:




Jackson dropping all of his food on the ground and escaping:



After leaving, the kids mentioned that this place was lots more FUN than they thought it would be. And I totally agree.