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We slept pretty well last night. But Graham keeps ending up in our bed-hope this doesn’t happen at home! When Campbell woke up in the middle of the night (probably early this morning), Robby was going to get up and get her, but Graham had laid on his arm and it had fallen asleep-he said he couldn’t even move it. Sure, likely story. Breakfast was again at the hotel-and of course this morning they didn’t have the boy's pancakes on a stick. They found plenty else to eat though. Even though everyone was asking for a snack soon after we sat down in the car. Actually, the first thing they ask for is the movie. We can’t even get in the car before they are asking for a new movie, to rewind it or turn it up. We have to stop it so they can hear us say anything-it is like Kid Crack!
We had meant to drive over the longest bridge in the world (at least that is what our kid’s book said) across Lake Pontchartrain. Last night, the GPS said that is how we would go but this morning when we were at the hotel it directed us another way. We noticed as soon as we took the wrong exit and Robby said we would turn around…but then he saw the next exit sign was 10 miles down the road. So we figured that we can drive across that bridge the next time we are here. However, the bridge that we were on lasted forever-but it wasn’t really over water (more like swamp land) so maybe that is why it wasn’t the longest.
We arrived at the Global Wildlife Center a little after 10. As we drove through the driveway, there were tons of animals around. Reagan asked if we were going to get out. Anderson told her that we were not going to get out cause they would bite us! I ran into see about tickets-thinking that we couldn’t make the 10:00 tour but they told me we had 5 minutes until it left. I ran back to the car, helped Robby unload kids and grabbed the bags, he took the big ones to the potty and I walked with Campbell and Graham to the wagon.
It was a tractor that pulled 4 covered wagons. We were put in the last wagon-it was full but there was plenty of room for us to spread out. As soon as we started going Graham said “me ride tractor!” We hadn’t shown him the tractor but he saw it and was very pleased. When I bought the tickets, they asked how much animal feed I wanted to buy. I knew the 1 dollar cups wouldn’t be enough so I bit the bullet and bought the $20 bucket of feed. When they brought it to us on the wagon, Robby looked at me and sarcastically asked if I had bought enough. Then the person came and delivered the feed to the people beside us-they bought the sack of feed….a 50 pound sack of feed! All of the feed was gone by the end of the tour-except the feed that Graham had spilled on the floor or dumped in the diaper bag. At least he was trying to participate in feeding the animals (though he was mostly making a big mess), the 2 year old beside us spent her time eating the animal food. She was the 4th kid in the family and her parents didn’t seem to mind-don’t worry, Campbell will not be allowed to eat animal feed!
When the tractor first took off, Graham had to look on his face like he was about to be really scared. But he soon found his job as animal feed cup refiller and was as happy as he could be. When he was looking out the side of the window and an animal would come up, he would move his hands off of the edge and holding them up in the air. He wanted to keep all of his fingers. We started off with 5 or 6 cups that we used to feed the animals with. However, we ended with only 2. You can see in some of the pictures the animals eating out of the cups-after they had taken them away. The antelopes took 3 of our cups and Graham just threw one over the side!
The entire Global Wildlife Center was amazing. It is on 900 acres of land and all of these animals just run wild. As we entered into the gates, so many animals came running. We saw deer, emus, llamas, kangaroos, giraffes, cows, zebras, buffalo, camels, ducks and lots of varieties of these animals. They apparently know that those big wagons are full of feed because they swarmed the wagons. The only animal you couldn’t feed from the cup was the zebras and the only animals you could feed with your hand were the llamas and cows. We were a little disappointed because the giraffes didn’t come and eat from the wagon. A private tour was in front of us and they must have been full-maybe next time.
Anderson enjoyed feeding the animals but didn’t get into it as much as Reagan. He would throw the food over but never feed anything with his hand or cup. He did save his food for just the right animal-Robby finally helped him feed a big old cow at the end of the tour. Reagan loved feeding the llamas. She even let them eat out of her hand-we couldn’t believe that she was doing that. She would give them a handful and then run back to the bucket to scoop more up. At the end of the tour, Anderson said “this is the greatest place I’ve ever been!”-it was pretty cool!
We had hot dogs in the cafe area and then I walked through the gift shop. It was filled with toys so we decided to not let the kids see it! On the wagon, they had mentioned ice cream and Robby told the kids but then he saw they didn’t have a great selection. So we promised them ice cream in a few minutes.
It was only a little while and we were in Flowood, Mississippi. We had been given a few eating choices and the first one (Sal and Mookies) we stopped at was closed for the holiday. It actually looked so good that we put it on the list of things to do next time we are near Jackson. Then we stopped by Berry Berry Good for some yogurt. The kids are really getting into having their own bowls of ice cream lately. Out front they had a splash fountain and since the kids bathing suits were in the car-we decided to play for a little bit. They had a great time.
Our hotel was just down the street and after unloading Robby decided that he wanted to go swimming too. And since the hard work of getting the three in their suits was done, they headed to swim while Campbell and I unpacked the room. We joined them in a few minutes. Reagan and Anderson are becoming as brave as Graham. The loved jumping off and are both so proud of themselves when they put their head in the water. Robby went to the room first to take a shower, then he came back and I went to get my shower, then we got the kids out of the pool for their baths.
Then we left the hotel for dinner. Graham had been asking to go and eat but as soon as we stepped foot outside, he started to meltdown. We eventually understood that he thought we were going to eat in the hotel. He didn’t understand that breakfast was not being served. Our dinner recommendation was Newk’s and it hit the spot. The kids loved the breadsticks and Reagan tried my soup and asked me to make some. It was fire roasted tomato soup and I told her that we would and next summer we would grow our own tomatoes to put in it. She said that maybe we should just buy the tomatoes at the store since it would be easier.
Back at the room, we had cookies and headed to bed. Campbell had slept through supper and was wide awake even after the others had gone to bed. She played for awhile and then fell sound asleep. Tomorrow we head home!…back to the real world-no swimming pool, no wild animals to see, no continental breakfasts, no sleeping in sleeping bags, no staying up late, no pushing elevator buttons, no opening the door with hotel keys…well, just for 18 days and then we are off again!
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