San Diego Day 5-Safari Park

Friday morning while Matt and I finished packing the girls kept themselves busy taking pictures of each other. None of Gracie's pictures of Hallie really turned out but here are a couple of Hallie's of Gracie....pretty impressive.

We loaded up and got on the road after we ate breakfast. When we came into San Diego I wasn't quick enough to snap a picture of this really cool bridge so I hoped I would remember to get one on the way out and luckily I did....isn't it cool?

The drive wasn't bad to the safari park about 45 minutes we decided to do that on our way back to Vegas since it would put us an hour closer to Vegas rather than driving back and forth....that was a smart thought on our part. The closer we got the safari the hotter it got. By the time we got the the park it was just shy of 100 degrees I was not ready for it to be that hot.

Luckily once we got inside there was a lot of shade and misters everywhere. The girls had no desire to see the bats but really wanted to stick their heads in the animal statue. I thought it was cute how they posed this one so they look like they are upside down hanging like a bat.

We wandered down to find the tram that takes you out into the fields to see the animals. On our way there we saw the biggest hot air balloon I have ever seen. We looked into riding on it but they didn't have any openings and we didn't want to wait the couple hours it would take to be our turn so we settled for watching it.

One of the volunteers said we should hurry to see the lions since the baby cubs were out so we hurried down and found they sleeping against the glass.

                                      

By then we were pretty close to the tram so that is where we headed next. The rows each held 4 people which was perfect for us. The kids were really excited to get closer to the animals and we took advantage of the shade and free ride to have a snack and get everyone re hydrated.

They had the area the tram traveled to broke into east, west, and northern Africa. There were 2 rhinos sitting in the shade of the tree 

And then there were a half a dozen giraffes including 2 babies...why is everything so much cuter as a baby?

We stopped for a minute to listen to the zookeeper talk about the eagles

Our little family in front of the family of gorillas

I really wanted to see the gorillas since one of the moms had had a baby the end of March. If you look at the picture closely you can see the baby tucked into the side of the mom. She would walk with one arm and carry the baby with the other The baby also looked as if it were hanging on for dear life with one arm but it was really cool.

Then we decided to call it a day since it was still very hot. We got to the car and got lunch out before getting on the road. We stopped for gas and headed for Vegas. Not long after we got on the road that Gracie gave up and fell asleep she must have been really tired she slept for almost 3 hours. Hallie was so good and just quietly looked at books or colored. I don't know how I got so lucky to have such low maintenance kids.

We once again got to grandmas about dinner time . After we ate grandma was making cinnamon rolls for a bake sale the next day but luckily she remembered that she would probably have plenty of people that would want to sample them so she made a double batch and everyone was happy to help sample.

After cinnamon rolls, cuddles, and a movie it was off to bed. Sweet success another great day filled with being together and making memories.