Beaches, Buffalos, BIG laughs and....Pigs

Well, today was Memorial Day. We were supposed to take the kids to their very first trip to the beach. We were going with Jill and Wade up to Lake Erie in Canal Fulton. We were all SO excited about it. Jill and I packed a picnic/cookout lunch. I got the whole family some flip flops for the beach. And I bought sun screen, buckets for sand castles and lots of film!!! We got to the beach and it was a mess. There weren't many people there and the sand was so "shell-ee" that we never could have walked in our bare feet. It was too rough. SO, we went to another beach. There was seaweed and dead fish all over it!!! Wade asked someone from the area what the deal was, and they told him that all the beaches were like that right now due to all of the storms. UGH.
WELL, there was a nice park/playground across the street of the second beach, so we went over there to have our lunch and to let the kids play on the playground for a while.
Not too bad. But not the beach.
We decided then to go to the African Safari which was nearby. We have a zoo pass, so it allowed us to get our car load in for half price. COOL
Wade drove and Dave rode up front with him the first time through. It was soo much fun and soooo funny. The kids were all scared, so they stayed in the back far from any open windows. Jill and I made fun of Wade and Dave getting scared of the Buffalo. At one point we were all looking at a Zebra outside Wade's window, then all of a sudden we hear Dave say "uuuhhh, Guys!" and we look over to see this HUGE Buffalo with it's head stuck in Daves window!! Cracked us up so much. Then Dave stuck out the food to feed it, and just said "here, have it" and threw the bucket out the window.
SO, the second time through, Jill and I were saying how we weren't afraid blah blahblah.
I had the hardest time convincing Jill not to act afraid. THEN the BIG GUY Buffalo came to MY window. He stuck his head ALL the way in and he was SO dirty and stunk SOOOOO bad. I thought he was going to touch me. So, of course. I screamed. Yes, the guys thought that was hilarious. Wade laughed till he cried. I've never seen him laugh that hard. ROFL
After that we went to see the other animals that we can walk through and see. The kids played on another playground. We watched a show. And after Dave and the Boys got in line to hold a Red Tailed Python!!!!!! It was huge!!!!! Trevor, after much conjoling, got up there with Dave and Dylan, but just as the girl went to hand them the snake, he screamed and ran away. I got LOTS of pictures of that! LOL But Dave and Dylan did it, and we have some good pictures of that too!!
Afterward, we found out that Dylan thought it was a toy. He had no idea that it was real, or he probably would have screamed and ran too!!
The kids could go on Pony rides and Camel rides for free. The boys rode the pony, but not the camel. OH and we saw a baby monkey with his mommy too!
To end the day, we watched a "NasPig Race" Our pig was pig number 3 (which is our lucky number :) and it's name was Pig Diddy. LOL It WON THE RACE!!!!!!! Good Little Piggy!!!!
When we went to leave (did I mention that it was 90 degrees out???) the van wouldn't start!! UGH. BUT security came and gave us a jump and we laughed and reminisced about the day all the way home! It was a GREAT day. Even if we didn't get to go to the beach. Jill and I are going to take the kids to one sometime this summer though. They all, but especially Trevor kept saying "But Mom, I thought we were going to the beach?" :( made me sad. But he had a fun day anyway.
THE END
(ha ha, I felt like I wrote a book just now)