Safari Boy

Ethan & Daddy in the Safari Van

Ethan had his first safari last week when we had some friends here from Wisconsin visiting. We weren't sure how he would do, but he loved it and managed the trip really well. He was so excited to see the animals and it was cute watching him look for them. The really bad thing though, was that the first thing we saw in the park was a dead baby elephant. We have never seen that before, but of course that would be Ethan's first experience! We just told him it was sleeping, and he kept saying "Poor Elephant!" Then whenever we saw something laying down, he would say "Poor _______!"

The baby elephant that we saw first.

A Live Elephant

After that we saw a lot of animals ALIVE. We saw lions, giraffe, gazelles, buffalo, more elephants, dik-diks (the smallest deer in the world), zebras, warthogs, hippo & monkeys. Overall it was a good trip and he loved seeing them all running around. The hotel where we stayed is located up on a big cliff overlooking the savanna. It also has a watering hole on the property so the animals come there to get water. We saw elephants there during the day, a lone buffalo and then we saw 5 lions come to get water too that night. That was really exciting. We don't have any pictures of the lions because we couldn't use our flash or they would run away. The best part is that you can go down this huge staircase to the bottom where the water hole is and go into a little bunker. From there you are on eye level with the animals drinking so that was great. We got to see elephants like that and also the 5 lions. They were so amazing and beautiful. The animals don't know you are there so you can get really close and just watch them.

Overall it was a great trip and Ethan had so much fun. He was sad when we told him we were done and weren't going to see any more animals. You can tell by the pictures that on the ride home he was pretty tired and zonked out in the van. What a great trip!

(If you click on the pictures you can make them bigger to see the animals better.)

Lion & Zebra

Mommy & Daddy & Ethan

Ethan looking at the animals. If you look close you can see the zebra out the window of the van and the elephant behind Ethan when we were in the bunker looking at the watering hole.

Elephants in the background behind Ethan.

All tuckered out!