Wild Animal (Flower) Park

We've been to the Wild Animal Park about 15 times. No we haven't been there that much and really we haven't been there since our passes ran out over a year ago but we happened to get three free passes that were about to expire and decided it was a great way to spend an afternoon. Saturday April 24th was indeed a busy day. We started by cleaning the church and then Emma was to have a Primary Activity which she was planning on leaving early from and attending Karate but then while we were in the midst of cleaning the fire alarm in the church went off and the fire department arrived! It turned out to be the fog machine from the Primary activity and no big deal but it sorta threw a wrench in our plans and we decided to forgo Karate feeling the activity was more important. It turned out perfect! We left right from the church to go to the park! I think I had more fun with all the flowers everywhere than I did with the animals. Sometimes I find myself a little obsessed with taking pictures of flowers. My poor family has to deal with my stopping and snapping shots everywhere we go! These are only a few of the highlights from our day but enough to show how fun we had!

My cute kid!

This huge lion was right in front of us! Very very glad we were behind a deep ravine!

This pathway looked like a perfectly romantic place to take my sweet hubby for a little private "stroll"!!!!! Ah if only Emma weren't around! (Oh sorry this is a family blog!)

If you click on this picture you can see better the newest baby African elephant. They hadn't given it (can't remember boy or girl) a name yet but it was so cute standing there nursing. Subsequently the Zookeeper told us that a baby elephant will nurse up to three years and that before that the gestation period for elephants is 22 months. I was thankful that day and every other day not to be an elephant!!!

This water fall is over by the higher elephant looking spot. I was thinking when we came upon it that I just needed a good book and I was set for a few hours!

This next set of pictures were in a butterfly enclosure. The last few times we have been there this has not been open. Having never been in there before we really didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be my favorite part of the day. I've never been all that into butterflies, I mean I think they are cool and everything but ya know what ever!! This was so super duper cool. There were seriously butterflies EVERYWHERE. It was really humid and pretty warm but the everything was seriously so cool that I didn't want to leave. (Click on any of the pictures Mom and you can see them closer up!)

This last part is all flowers that we saw there. I guess just going in April means that you get to be a part of all the blooming. Spring is my favorite time of year and so for me it was a real treat to walk around and experience all the beautiful colors. At one point (again up by the elephants) we were looking for a Bonsai exhibit and walked into this green house that basically had all the same kind of plant but in tons of different colors. We never found the Bonsai exhibit but we had a good time walking through the greenhouse which the flowers from that are the bottom two pictures.

All in all this was a fabulous day. The weather was perfect and we had such a good time being together as a family. I think if my silly plantar fasciitis hadn't been making my foot feel like a knife was being jammed into my bone with every step, we would have stayed longer. Still such a great day!

P.S. Thanks Jenn and Margo for our free tickets!