Wildlife World Zoo

This zoo costs $28 bucks to get into, and is also 2 hours away from our house, so we haven't ever gone.  But being halfway there at the Sheraton in Phx, we decided to make the trek.  And I found a coupon for buy 1 get 1 free in an egg carton at Target, which sealed the deal.  We invited Kara and her hub to go, but he couldn't make it, so it was just Kara & Allie.  Bummer, but we still had fun!  After we chopped off our left arms to get into the zoo, we were off.  This zoo needs some serious maintenance in the way of pavement or cement, but it's still very cool.  You can get right up to the animal cages and enclosures, making the animals (if they choose to be) between 2-4 feet away from you.  If you were the rebellious sort, you could definitely reach out a hand to either get licked by a white tiger (Ben, you will not get licked.  The tiger will lick his lips after eating your fingers.) or feel a rhinocerous horn.  The kangaroo enclosure has a loop you can walk through and all that's separating you is a sign requesting you stay on the path and a rope.  They also had a 3.5 minute train ride that goes through a few of their plain animal pens (gazelles, dic dics, cranes, ostriches, etc.  And yes, they are called dic dics, good thing they probably don't care that's their title).  They also had a pretty good aquarium that housed a million fish, creepy crocodiles, even creepier eels, a white alligator and penguins. The zoo was pretty much awesome from an animal standpoint, but I felt like I'd been walking around the farm after we got done, clothes were dirty, feet were dirty, the stroller was dirty, yuck. 

Here are some photos from the day, with stories included, cause we had some GREAT ones!:
Um, hello Mr. White tiger, you are looking rather enormous these days.  Oh, that's because you're 3 feet away.  You're up to my shoulder in height.  Wow.  This is not zoomed in at all!

Seeing the Marty's (Madagascar)

Ok, first of all, it's super awesome that you can feed the giraffes.  Second, their tongues are absolutely the grossest thing ever.  I know they are their tool to retrieve nourishment from trees, but gross.  Gross, I need to gag.  It was honestly going to grab her wrist.  Good thing she's small and doesn't realize that is so gross and creepy!.  Cool, but blechnastyyuck. 

This little man is so sweet.  He hung out with Dad while Kara, Allie, K and I fed the giraffes.  Who knows what he's laughin about, but it's cute!It's bright Dad, but I'm still laughin!

Oh man, this is the best story of the day.  Kara and I were tired of staring at tortoises doing nothing, so we were starting to leave, but Ben called us back.  Kyndal was yelling "the daddy turtle is chasing the Kyndal turtle!" (she compares all size related things on a scale of Daddy to baby aka big to small).  These two were literally running (I know, weird to say, but true) around their pen, so we were pretty excited about that untiiiiiilllll..... the daddy turtle caught up to the NOT Kyndal turtle.  Um, it was apparently a mommy turtle, and it looked as though it did not want to get caught.  Yes, we do have a picture, and no, I won't show it.  It was fairly gratuitous.  And loud.  Lots of grunting on the male tortoises part...  I'm laughing just writing this, Allie for the rest of the day when asked what a turtle said, would mimic the male's grunting rather well.  So funny!!  The tortoises were definitely the most amusing part of the day!  Girls watch out if your man is coming after you grunting,,,  Lflippin'OL!!!

Loved the fish, his favorite part of the day by far.  He slammed on the glass repeatedly (I'm sure why all the lion fish are on high alert with their fins), he did that to the crocodile too. 

K seemed brave, but she wouldn't reach in and touch them...I love their little heads!  So cute seeing the two of them sittin next to each other. This is when we were on the train ride, in which our conductor wasn't paying that great of attention and hit a gazelle.  Yes.  Hit it.  I didn't witness it, Kara did, and I'm glad I didn't.  All I got to see was the poor thing limping away.  They're about the size of an extremely skinny legged labrador, so it was really sad that this relatively tiny thing got punted out of the way of the train.  The conductor kept watching him, probably weighing his options, and finally radioed someone that he'd hurt the gazelle.  It was so sad to see!!  Poor little thing.

Check it out!!  There's a little joey in the pouch!  It kept pokin' its head out to get some food, it was so adorable.  I can't believe that we got to see this!

This was how far away we were from them, and the lack of fencing.  Very cool!  They of course weren't coming anywhere near the people, but still neato. 

We had such a good time with Kara & Allie, sad Shiloh couldn't come with!  They're a fun fam, we love them.  It was a memorable day, and I will never forget..... ok lets be honest, the tortoises.  Plus all the other stuff too I guess, haha.  I'm glad we had fun because we probably won't be going back for a long while! 

Oh, and sidenote, Kyndal I think (I'm afraid to type it for fear of jinxing it), is potty trained!!!!!  She hasn't had one accident since last Wednesday.  Granted I've said "Kyndal do you need to go potty" about 1013 times since last Tuesday, but.  I love not having to change her diapers while she's speaking in full sentences to me!  It was getting embarrassing!  She's done so great though, I'm so proud of her.  We had one really bad day where she didn't go in the potty once, but she's been dry ever since.  Yay!!!