Safari

Yesterday we took a tour of the Safari Animal Park in Stafford, just 10 minutes outside Springfield.  Lynn had the day off so we had a truck full, all three boys in the back, Lynn, me and Mary in the front. We saw a lot of deer, cute little baby ones, camels, cattle, a baby giraffe, zebras, tigers, bison, donkeys and fat little pigs.  Tyler had fun feeding the animals, he would just drop the food outside the truck and dip into bag for more food.

One the way to the park.

Some of the animals we saw.

Somebody needs a dentist.

This guy in the background with the big horns, hip checked the bed of the truck as we passed. It was hilarious. No damage to the truck, it just felt like we were bumped.

The camels were very bold.  We had run out of food by this point, so we rolled up the windows when we passed these guys.

This baby giraffe was so cute.  Poor thing couldn’t eat as fast as everyone wanted to feed him.

Nature center

Jeremy left for Nevada this week so Tyler and I decided to visit  Grandma and Grandpa Gaither in Springfield.  Tyler is getting a lot of play time in with his cousins.  Yesterday we went to Wacky World, they have a bunch of inflatables and slides to play on.  We wore everyone out there and all three kids took a nap…I think even grandma snuck a nap in.

Took a couple tries to get this shot – but finally got them all smiling.

Dog pile!  They started doing this once Tyler got here – he just knew what to do and just jumped in.  I don’t think he’s my baby boy anymore.

Not sure how he ended up on the bottom this time…

Today, Keagan went to school and Caedman stayed home with his daddy so we to the Springfield Nature Center.  They have  a 2 mile trail that you can walk, but it way too hot for that, it’s almost 100 again today!  We stayed inside, they have a little museum with lots of fun stuff for the kids.  Tyler had fun walking around looking at the different animal exhibits and opening all kinds of drawers and doors.  They even had a fish tank and a  cave you could play in.

They had a really short water fountain, just his size.  He doesn’t really understand how to drink out of them yet, but loves to try.

Dropping grandma’s penny’s in the “spring”.

FISH!  He loves aquariums.  He saw this from across the room and ran to it.

It took some coaxing, but we got him to stick his head through this beaver’s habitat.

Learning about all the animals with grandma – he got to pull the leaver and watch the animals spin.

He loved these drawers!

This was in the same kids play area as the picture above.  They had tons of animal puppets that you could play with complete with fake trees and a background.  This was the tunnel we tried to crawl through – until we realized it was full of animals!

Posing for the camera.  He tried to fit into the hole of the tree in the background. The hole wasn’t quite big enough.

This is the fake cave – he was a little scared to go by himself, but once mommy came with us he went back several times by himself.

Tomorrow we’re headed to the Safari Park!

Can I come with you daddy?

All packed and ready to go

Mission accomplished

Jeremy and I have been in Henderson for the last couple days and our mission to find an apartment is complete.  We will be living at Equestrian Apartments.  It’s really nice and several of Jeremy’s friends also live there so we will know some people right away. Here’s a link to the apartments.

We’ve already had some great food since we’ve been here. We went to Grimaldi’s brick oven pizza – originated in New York.  We had an artichoke, sausage and onion pizza with red sauce, amazing!  We also went to Firehouse Subs, also very good and Nielsen’s Custard shop – I got a concrete with Reese's pieces, it was huge and I am still full.

We walked up and down the strip around Caeser’s Palace and the Bellagio, it was so hot people were selling bottled water on the street for $1 and the pavement melted the bottom of my flip flops.

Below are several pictures from inside the Bellagio Hotel.  It’s just amazing what they put into each hotel – tons of shopping, restaurants and even entertainment.

 

This was the ceiling in the lobby – these are glass flowers.

This is an overhead canopy of over 12.5 million synchronized LED modules over Fremont street in the old downtown of Vegas.  This is where all the older casinos are – some of the first ones in the area. It is longer than 5 football fields.

 

 

Jeremy thought the weather was fine and isn’t even bothered by the heat to much – I’m dying. There isn’t any humidity, it’s just super hot – especially in the sun.  It’s considerably cooler in the shade with a breeze.  In fact, it was so hot outside that the water at our pool felt ice cold – which was refreshing.

Anyways, we had some extra time before our flight and I finally convinced Jeremy to get a pedicure.  We just drove around and were lucky enough to find a place that hasn’t even been opened a week so everything was 50% off.  We got two 45 minute pedicures for $55!  I’m hoping they still have everything on sale in a month when I'm back out here.

Here’s more pictures from shopping inside the Caesar’s Palace Forum  Shops.  Here’s I am begging for some Tiffany & Co. jewelry – it didn’t work.

As we were leaving the Caesar’s Palace shops we got to ride these cool spiral escalators!

 

Below is us in front of a fountain that was indoors right next to a big aquarium – you can’t see it, but it was to the right and it housed the largest stingray I’ve ever seen – along with about 50 other exotic fish.