We last minute canceled our last minute trip to CA for the long weekend and opted to venture out closer to home.

After a nice bfast at Cracker Barrel we went to the Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium in Litchfield.  

A short 25 minute drive and we were there.  The kids had a great time and complained very little considering the weather.  I’ll admit there were several times I daydreamed of the 70 degrees going on in CA!!

Aidan was so excited about the curvy palm trees out front of the zoo.

The Baby Animal Nursery was probably Emma’s favorite attraction. The nursery houses the newest babies at the zoo.  Saturday there were 3 different animals.

Baby Tortoise.  He was the size of a piece of broccoli yet his mother is one of the largest breeds of tortoise there is!!

Sweet cuddly baby porcupines.

Baby Tigers that are 3 months old.

Hands down the favorite for Aidan was the stingray exhibit where you are able to pet stingrays.

  

After a bit Aidan gave it a try and loved it.  If you ask him he’ll tell you ALL about it.  Do not touch their eyes or tummy.  Two fingers down the head and back.  Their stingers have been cut off.  We were there long enough he could repeat  everything the worker was announcing to all the visitors :)

Here’s video of Aidan…

I even gave it a try.  Ewe.

Isaac was very interested too!

Lunch was pretty cool.  There was an on site restaurant where you could eat next to the shark tank!  It was a neat environment, and well…the food…um….was… kid friendly.

 

We fed giraffes.

Emma & I rode the SkyLine ride to get a aerial view of some animals.

From above we could see the train we later rode.

            

These birds were funny.  They followed along the train as it took us through the Africa exhibit.

Caught two deer type animals fighting as the train went by.

My sweet baby!  He’s such a trooper on our all day adventures where he sees very little.

He did LOVE the penguins!!

Some unique animals to this zoo:

White Tiger

Albino Alligator

Emma petting a Star Fish

Could get very close to these very large porcupines

Feeding the ducks by one monkey exhibit.

Aidan hiding behind daddy in the aviary.  He wasn’t sure about all those birds!

Ride home…sooo tired!

Home to enjoy the best way to cool off after a hot, dusty, ruining my pretty feet kind of day! :)

            

Overall the zoo was ok.  Kinda pricy in our opinion.  They “brag” about their variety of animals…which they do have a gazillion kinds of deer & birds.  Their tigers & lion had very overgrown exhibits making it hard to see.  In the small mammal building they had some of the same monkeys on display outdoors as well as hamsters, genuine pigs, mice and other basic animals.

Sunday we took it easy.  Attended CCV church north of Phoenix.  Great church, but quite a drive for us to do weekly!  The minister did a great message on Moses…something about how he listened to God’s calling and moved to the desert for 40 years.  Blah.  Blah. Well…I listened to the call, I am here, but certainly hoping I’m called back “home” before 40 yrs!! :)  

Monday Matt started the finishing of our dining room table.  It had seen 9 years of use and was needing refinished.  While preparing to sand in the side yard he found this:

It was in one piece before Matt introduced his shovel to the snake. :)  Any good snake is in two pieces in my opinion. :)

I took advantage of some down moments while Matt & Aidan were sanding & staining to do some scrapping :)  I must admit I’m lovin’ the house layout in regards to my scrap/sewing room!!

Hope you had a great vacation weekend!  We certainly missed our traditional Atlanta Labor Day celebration, but the kids were very pleasantly surprised today when they received a bag of goodies from Gma fulllll of parade candy!!