Friday, January 9, 2009

Mike's Critter Zoo

The other week we went to the best zoo ever! It was more like a farm. Mike, the owner, has all of these animals on his property and has built cages for them that go on forever. Mike walks you around the zoo and gives you an up close tour of his zoo. I have never been so close to some of these animals before. It was amazing, as you will see......




















Here is Oakley making friends with a black bear! The claws on that paw were huge. Ry and I got a little nervous when the bear had a good hold of Oakley's leg.






Mike had just built the coolest cage for this brown bear.














Gage shaking hands with a bob cat.














This cougar was seriously smiling for the camera. As soon as he would see a camera this is what he did.




















A Siberian Tiger















Kobe checking out the 2 month old baby tiger. This tiger was living with Mike in his house up until a week before we were there.























This is a picture of an actual Liger, a tiger and lion mix. It's not a very good picture of the Liger, but what I wanted people to see is what is in the cage. Those are the remains of a deer that the Liger had been munching on all morning. Mike said that some hunters dropped off a few deer last night to give to the animals to eat. It was nasty, but amazing at what little was left. Mike said that the whole thing will be gone by the end of the day!





















When we first got to this cage of tigers, they were laying on the ground not paying any attention to us. Mike had Connor, my nephew, run back and forth as fast as he could right in front of the fence. In no time this tiger was up chasing Connor as he ran back and forth. Mike said that is their natural instinct to chase what ever is running by them. So if you ever find yourself with a tiger, don't try to run away, you will lose.















Here is a picture of the Liger.



















This is a female spider monkey. Mike had a bag a chips in his hands and offered one to the monkey. She willingly took it. Then Mike gave the whole bag to the monkey. He then tried to get the bag back. As soon as his hand was reached out in front of her, she would freak out and scream. Mike said, "That's a female for ya!"

Friday, January 2, 2009

Christmas Morning Continued












The kids opening more presents.


















I almost started to cry when I opened my present from Ryan and the kids. It was a gift certificate for a cleaning company to come clean our house! That was one of my all time favorite gifts ever! Cleaning and being pregnant don't mix well with me and I guess Ryan really did heard my complaints about the matter!
















My attempt at chocolate covered caramels. They look better then they tasted. After I made them I realized I had bought the wrong kind of chocolate. Better luck next year!






















Kobe enjoying our present from Grandma and Grandpa Topham-The Wii. That thing has given our family hours of entertainment! Thanks G&G T!

Christmas Morning

On Christmas Eve Day I was in the kitchen all day cooking our food for the next few days while the kids were running around outside in the 75 degree weather. That night we had our favorite German meal for dinner-roast and spetzle. YUM! We delivered some gifts to the neighbors and when we returned Santa's Elves had dropped off new pajamas for the kids. We then watched Fred Clause (Kobe's request) then put the kids to bed.

Kobe sent himself to bed Christmas Eve at 9:00 pm so Santa wouldn't pass up our house. After 3 hours of anxiety and tears, he finally fell asleep at midnight. He thought for sure that Santa had passed our house because he couldn't fall asleep. We had to reassure him that Santa would not pass our house and with a little help of some sleep meds, he was out.

We all had a nice Christmas and enjoyed being home with nowhere to go. We stayed in our pajamas all day and just hung out. We missed being with family, but we were able to talk to everyone on the phone.






















Kobe with his new Alabama football. Roll Tide!


















Oakley laying on her new sleeping bag.























Kobe with his new DS. Kobe left his last DS on our flight back from Utah last month. We tried to track it down for several weeks, but no luck. Kobe wrote Santa another letter to tell him what happened and asked for a new one. We then had to send it express mail to Santa so he would receive it in time.

















Oakley opening her present from Grandma and Grandpa Hammond.
If you are wondering, Oakley has her apron on over her pj's. She decided she needed to cook some food in her room before she came out to see what Santa had brought her!






















This is what I like to call my BTS pillow. AKA the pregnancy pillow. If any of you are pregnant or going to be pregnant in the future, I highly recommend the pregnancy pillow. I have never slept so good while pregnant!

Family Pictures



























































We tried to do some family pictures the other day. We never have had a problem getting Kobe to be happy and willing to smile for the camera. Oakley, on the other hand, takes a little bit of work. These are just a few of about 200 photos.