And a lemur on top

Interesting weekend. We went to visit my mother-in-law. My sister-in-law and her new husband were there. And I have to commend her again on her choice of hubby, he's really awesome.

Saturday morning we went to Sharka Rosa, a wildlife ranch near their house. It was so much fun! Not overwhelming like the zoo, but we felt we could do everything in a few hours without making the kids go nuts. You know how kids get.

They had a tour where you sat in a cage pulled by a tractor, and the cage had buckets on the outside. The animals came up to the cage and ate, and you could pet them. Therefore, the kids and I got to pet a longhorn, a water buffalo, a zebra-donkey (zedonkey???), and some camels. I got some great head-shots of Penelope, but all I could catch was her head because she was so close. We also got to see some endangered animals that they were taking care of.

They brought out some animals for the kids to pet, one was a miniature horse that acted like a dog. It would roll onto its back for you to pet its belly and kick its legs. Sooooo cute. And we also petted two lemurs and a baby albino kangaroo. We watched the kangaroos and walabees running (hopping?) around, and met a deer with a growth-plate deformity that caused its bottom jaw to grow at a sideways right angle from its mouth. In the wild, it never would have survived. But they take care of her, and when she's done growing they can fix the plate.

I got a great picture of a ring-tailed lemur jumping on Izzy's head. She freaked out for about two seconds, then said, "I think he likes me." Yep. He also wanted a closeup, so he came over and grasped both ends of my camera and stuck his face into the lens. What an adorable thing to see. Unfortunately we missed the cougar cubs they had earlier that morning, they were only visiting.

I've got a few busy weeks ahead. Another trip, a birthday party, teaching lots and lots of lessons. I hope there will be even more to teach after today.


Observation of the week: Moms never get a break (yeah, like that's news). But most people don't realize to what extreme this goes. Forget everyone who says moms don't even get to go to the bathroom alone. I know many times that not only was I not alone while going to the bathroom, but was made to multitask as well. Some of these jobs included dressing dolls, combing hair, negotiating fights, and helping my kids get dressed. And people wonder why modesty flies out the window after you have kids. It's out of necessity, not will.