Safari in Alabama

You'll have to consider the word "safari" loosely in this case, but it was still a fun experience. On Friday we drove about 45 minutes to take the kids to Harmony Park Safari, sort of a pseudo-safari in my opinion. It's a drive-thru type (stay in the car, doors locked, windows mostly rolled up) and you can actually feed the free-ranging animals, which we opted not to do. Of course, the animals themselves didn't know we had nothing to feed them, so they swarmed the car pretty aggressively thinking they were going to get hand-outs. We saw all sorts of things: emus (they were really creepy and I was thankful we were separated by the car windows), deer, rams, ponies, a monkey, zebra, some sort of African steer with the hugest horns ever, a turkey, peacocks, alligators, llamas, and bison. I have to just say that seeing their biggest bison, a gigantic 2000 pound dude, at eye level out your car window was neat and quite unnerving. This enormous guy came and put his face right at the window, as in fogged it up. The pictures don't portray well at all just how absolutely HUGE he was. After the driving around part, we went to the little reptile room and saw some cool stuff in there like a baby gator, baby water turtles, snakes, and lizards. Then we walked into another enclosed area to see some tortoises and alligators, and another monkey. We had a good time and the kids really liked seeing the animals up close.

Oh, this part has nothing to do with the safari, but yesterday Dallin hit a big milestone by moving into his new big boy bed since we'll need the crib for our new baby in just a few weeks. We bought a mattress and boxspring off craigslist for $50 (a sweet, cheap find!) last Saturday, purchased some bedding during the week, and got it all set up for him yesterday. We really talked it up, so he thinks it's great. He's done wonderfully so far for his two naps and last night; he stays in bed when he goes to sleep and stays in bed when he wakes up till we come get him. I can't believe my "baby" is big enough to sleep in a real bed.

He thinks it's awesome.

Sleeping in his big boy bed for the first time for yesterday's nap.