I belong to a local homeschool group. They ask each parent to help out with something, and since I'm the over-achiever that I am, I can't seem to just do something small. This year I volunteered to plan a monthly field trip for families with elementary-aged kids. Remember that post on the Edmond Safety Village last month? That was the first one I scheduled. Our second one was even cooler. I may not be able to top this...
We went to the Tiger Safari in Tuttle, Oklahoma. This place was amazing! I love zoos and I love animals, and that made this all the better. We got a group discount, but even without it the admission would have been well worth it. It's not as large as the zoo, but where else can you sit on a tortoise?
One of the first things we did was go to the tortoise enclosure (I can't remember what species, but they are the third largest in the world) and the owner selected 4 of the moms to come sit on the animals. I was more than a little nervous, but the tortoise didn't mind a bit... I think. His head was pulled inside his shell so I couldn't see his expression very well.
After the moms took a turn, the kids all got a chance, too. Kelsey was excited.
Maddox was apprehensive.
And Connor wouldn't do it all.
They also had some babies inside, and he brought one out for us to see just how tiny they are when they are born.
This might be a good time to mention my "mom fail" of the day. I forgot to bring coats for the boys. Unfortunately, I think we had hit the high for the day around 7am and just got cooler as the day went on. I'm pretty sure it was around 50-55 degrees the whole time we were there. Fortunately, another mom took pity on Connor (who was trembling like a leaf!) and snagged an extra jacket from their van for him. Maddox wasn't fazed at all.
Rather than bore you with the endless pictures of the cool animals we saw, I'm going to just mention a couple that were especially noteworthy.
Firstly, there were these very loud birds. Our tour-guide said that if the kids jumped up and down and screamed then the bird would dance for us. And dance he did.
All the noise was a little scary for the younger kids, though. (Not a great picture, but you get the idea!)
We also saw several tigers, and the adults got to feed one of the white tigers.
There were several exhibits with ring-tailed lemurs, and one with white and black lemurs. They were all very active, but the black and white lemurs were the most entertaining for the kiddos. One got really "up close and personal."
All in all it was a great day, and I'd love to go back sometime. If you live in Oklahoma, you should definitely make the trip. It's worth it!
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