Lazy 5 Ranch

After Ella's screening we had planned to go to the museum but with the time i was afraid we wouldn't get to see it all so we went to the backup, Funstation! I called to see what time they opened and heard all the kids screaming in the background. 6 groups were already there and more were coming. Plan C was now on the table. Lazy 5 Ranch. We decide that it is closer and something we could do in the afternoon and still make it back for gymnastics. L5R is a drive thru park. They have over 750 animals. Most seemed to be ostriches and pigs. They also had deer, big horned sheep, llamas (could have been alpacas), giraffes, a rhino, goats, zebras, water buffalo, long horn cattle, donkeys, buffalo, gazelles, antelopes, camels, tortoise, birds of all kids, lemurs, and i am still leaving stuff out. We drive out into the middle of nowhere and turn into the gate. We pay our admission and buy 6 buckets of food. Yes, we were allowed to feed the animals as we drove through the park. A recipe for disaster. We stop and shuffle the car seats so everyone can get to a window and we are ready. We pass through the gate and are greeted by 2 ostriches. They quickly came towards the car and must have signaled all their friends to come along. We rolled up are windows. Ostriches are scary animals when their beak is in your face. I quickly learned that Jordan is TERRIFIED of ostriches. I would later use that information for kicks (that means fun). We began to feed a cow/deer animal. Jordan and Ella were hand feeding and i thought we were supposed to hold out the entire bucket so i did and my animal decided he would like to feed himself. He promptly bit the bucket and took it from me. I would like to say i held it as tight as i could but i was no match for the beast. When i saw him devour the food from the bucket now resting on the ground i decide he could have it and we moved on. Hand feeding from then on. All of the kids fed animals out of their hands. We spent the rest of the drive loving on all the babies and trying to escape the ostriches. I will say the long horn cattle gave me a scare. Those horns were HUGE so we sped past them with no attempts at feeding. We wanted to feed the zebras but they were being fed by the people on the wagon tours. They got to feed the zebras and giraffes. Anyway, as we traveled i made fun of the kids and their fear of the ostriches. In order to show them they were not going to kill them i fed a white one. I honestly thought i might lose a finger. I think that might be my only experience feeding an ostrich. We still had plenty of food so we got out and saw the camels, birds and a few other animals and then we went back for round two. This time the zebras weren't being fed so i held out the bucket and shook it to get them over to the car and then....yes, the zebra took my bucket. I wasn't going down like that. After a moment of thinking i slowly opened the door and grabbed my bucket that still had food in it. I would not lose another bucket of food. We hand fed the zebra and went on our way. We finished the loop and started home to get ready for gymnastics. It was a great day and lots of laughs.