Kirsten and Zach got a little braver with each wave...going out a little farther each time and then racing back. They were having a ball!
The water was a little cold at first, but once your body turned numb it wasn't too bad...ha ha ha!
Zach is trying to talk himself into saying put..."I can do this, I can do this."
"Oh no, it's too late here comes the WAAAVE!"
We were blessed with great advice about this beach! It was gorgeous! Caleb was giving me a kiss as the beach day began. He had his bucket and shovel ready and was headed for the water. 
We started Caleb down in the water, but after awhile the sand just stayed in the bucket and we moved up to drier ground for sand castles.
"This here, is serious business."
I brought all the kids swimsuits but failed to get Kirsten to put hers on. I always figure that we will never be getting that wet. Think again.
We splurged and all shared a blue slushy to cool down. We were at the park from 8 to 4pm and were doing alot of walking except for the breather on the bus for 35 minutes.
Caleb was done walking and wanted to hitch a ride on one of the jeeps!
We went on the tram ride once to get to the opposite side of the zoo to see more animals and the kids liked it so much that nathan took them for their final ride. You could only have 4 people and so I volunteered to sit out this time.I don't really enjoy going way up high in the sky in a little bucket that makes weird noises. You can see Zach and Kirsten's heads from the #3 on their way up.
Here is dad and Caleb peeking out of the trams side. This makes me really nervous.
I waited down at a cafe for the group to return and wanted to get a picture. As I was watching I saw a little boy sticking his head way out and thought to myself..."where is that boys parents..." that's when I realized that was my little baby boy and where was nathan?
The kids were timid at first entering the gated petting zoo, but warmed up to the animals soon enough. There were goats, sheep, pigs, and rabbits. Surprisingly it wasn't that poopy. They had a care giver in the gate picking up as the animals went. We need that at every farm. Some pigs were in closed pens and had signs saying they were in time out from little hands... I said I need one of those for my house for me.
More little bugs...but I found some shade...now they are happier bugs!
Zach and Caleb loved the reptile area. We went around and around it looking at all the snakes and lizard. They came in all sizes and colors and it was a challenge to find come of them. I don't know that you can see this big snake in the picture, but it was right up to the glass. I thought it was cool to learn which ones were poisonous by the red dots on their information labels. There are too many poisonous snakes I've decided.
This tank held the long neck turtles. You can see one in the branches diagonally from Zach's head or diagonally from Kirsten's eyes to the left of the picture.
I tried to take this picture 3 times and still this was the best I could get...2 out of 3 on the turtle. It must of been slippery...I guess!
Here are some of my bugs blinded by the sun!
Here are some more of my bugs getting blinded by the sun or is that Caleb's "cheeeese" face I can't tell.
The only time that Caleb was stationary was when an animal could be seen. Miraculously the grizzly in this picture was blessing us with his presence.
Here's a close up of the grizzly. He was BIIIIIG! You can see a bare bone on the rock and fruit droppings by the rock side. Pretty impressive.
Here is another bear we saw from the bus. I didn't ever really believe that bears could climb trees because I hadn't seen it myself. Well this bear had great balance and walked/climbed with ease.
They had a seperate location for the polar bears where 3 roomed together. You could watch from above and then down below for if they went in the water. They were big bears. The guide said that the care takers call the bears into another area and then hide their food through the enclosure to mimick food scavaging like in the wild. They are very intune with what is best for the animals.
The rhinos weren't cooperating and wanted to continue eating behind their rock.
The elephants were a little bigger and therefor had a harder time hiding from us.
The kids needed a different mode of transport and we took advantage of the option for a tour around the park. Everything seems so much more fun from the second level of a bus. The guide told us the carriers in the enclosures were to prepare the elephants for any transports in the future. She also told us if the trees were ancored down the elephants would trash their enclosures. One elephant was sticking a twig behind it's tusk for later just like we would put a pencil or pen behind our ear. Funny huh!
The rhinos were a little more visible from the bus and we were told that they are brothers and this is the teenager holding pens until they are big enough to go to the outdoor wild range. Their skin was like armour.
Caleb like the bus at first but liked to do everything himself. With him not aware of his limits (gravity being one of them ) we were having a hard time keeping him behind the bar and not through and out them.
