Out of Africa

The week after Kaleb's birthday we dropped Sasha off at the in-laws and took Kaleb on a little road trip.  He handled it very well, but got a little bored about half-way.  Since dad was driving I got the opportunity to sit in the back seat and play lions and tigers and dinosaurs with him for the rest of the two-hour drive. 

 Once we arrived in Out of Africa, we were rushed into the Safari bus where we got to drive through a make-shift Serengeti.  The driver (one of the park keepers) gave us lots of details about each of the animals. 

 We also got a few pieces of carrot to give us the chance to feed some of the animals.  We gave Kaleb all of ours, so he got to feed the giraffe...

 And the camel (he's behind a fence because he and the giraffe apparently do not get along).

 We also saw a bunch of other plains animals.  My favorite part was hearing Kaleb's voice holler each animals name so that the whole bus could hear. "Look, Mommy, ZEBRAS!!!"  It was fun.

 After a quick (but expensive) bite to eat, we got to walk around and see some of the animals.  Here are some grizzly bear cubs...

 And of course the tigers.  Out of Africa houses some twenty-something big cats throughout the park, most of which are tigers.  Kinda ironic considering there are no tigers in Africa.  It was really cool to get so close while they were just walking around. 

 After lunch was the main attraction:  Tiger Splash.  Trainers encourage the tigers to chase them around a pool.  Since it was pretty warm that day, the tigers were slow to get moving, but Kaleb got a great seat!!

 A few times, the tigers showed us some pretty impressive moves.  Thankfully, I caught one on camera.

Kaleb also enjoyed using Daddy's binoculars after getting splashed so much!

 After Tiger Splash, they offer the audience the chance to feed a tiger (with 3-foot tongs and for a small fee), so that was a cool experience.  Our tiger was getting kinda full by the time we got to her, but she was still an impressive sight!

 The day we went they presented a large snake show, where we got to learn about and pet a boa constrictor.  Kaleb was pretty hesitant at first, but once he saw the other kids and daddy get involved, he couldn't help but touch it.

 On the drive home, Kaleb was SOOO tired, but so excited that he never took a nap.  Near the end of the trip he was pretty slap happy, so we all had the giggles once we picked up a very happy-to-see-us Sasha. 

Kaleb's 3rd Birthday

I just realized that I hadn't posted anything about Kaleb's third birthday (since I wanted to cut his 3-year post down a little.  Anyway, Kaleb's birthday was marked by a lot of freebies, including his first blizzard.  I think it was chocolate with strawberries... but I could be wrong.

 And a happy face breakfast at IHOP... he ate his yogurt-in-a-tube and a couple of bites of eggs... that was it.. good thing it was free!

 Anyway, as we went to a couple of stores to get ideas for Kaleb's presents this year, it became very obvious that he was really interested in dragons.  He even wanted to ride on the dragon on the carousel at the mall. 

 So... I had my sister make him a dragon-themed cake.  You can see the little dragons on one side of the moat and castle ruins aflame on the other... the castle ruins say Kaleb, but it's kinda hard to make out.  My sis was suffering from morning sickness that week, so she did a really awesome job considering. 

 Kaleb got a cool ninja dragon:

 And a couple of dragon families (the babies were the ones on the cake)

 This is the first year Kaleb had no problem blowing out his candle and really being a part of the festivities. 

 He loved opening all of his presents.  Ammon's parents gave him several shorts/shirts sets and a bunch of puzzles.  He was excited about all of those clothes!

 And he loved almost all of his other gifts too!  That's his fake-for-the-camer- excited face.

 This is his face when he gets a bunch of underwear as a gift.  CLASSIC!