January BFFER Day—Check!

Sunday, I got together with my bffers for the first of the 'monthly' bffer days. (Yep, it's one of the things on the list!) It was a HUGE success! I have to say, again, how much I love those people...seriously...love. I think the Lord has this beautiful life he's given us to just be shared with each other and to find joy and love in it everyday. He wants us to take the leap and do things we've never experienced, go places we haven't seen, because by doing those things, He shows us himself. It inspires us, it fills us, it just gives us peace.

 

Okay, so onto the details...we went to Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, LA. I shared a little about what it was in another post, but basically, you go into the middle of nowhere (hence, Folsom), and it's this huge piece of land that houses over 4,000 different animals like deer, kangaroos, giraffes, buffalo, bison, llamas, zebras, antelopes...it's crazy.

When you go, you purchase a tour ticket and then you can also buy 'feed.' Well, I was a newbie, so I thought one cup of feed was enough. Em informed me, not the case, we had to get the family sized bucket! So, we did that and got ready for the tour! They put you onto these big 'safari' covered wagons that have benches on each side. They have four different wagons attached, so we had plenty of room with a few other families on our wagon.

                  

First stop was with the deer, antelope and zebras. When I say deer, I say HUNDREDS of deer...they're all over, covering each side of the wagon, looking and waiting for us to throw feed to them. I personally felt bad for them, because they're all waiting for that one morsel of food and then fighting with each other to get it! LOL...but, I'm sure they're well fed. One thing to note is to NOT feed the zebras...they're apparently mean and will bite, so they're pretty much the only animal on the tour that we couldn't feed by hand--you really had to watch yourself cause they'd sneak up on ya and try to get your food/cup while you weren't looking--ask Erin!

  

 

 

 

After the first 'feeding' stop, we went further up the property and saw a couple of giraffes. Unfortunately it was morning and the giraffes weren't real keen on coming too close. They say that they rarely come close up next to the wagons, anyway, but, it was still cool to see them and get a couple of pics.

 

 

 

 

 

      

Llamas were next up--gotta love the llamas! They're too funny and were the first real 'hand' feed for all of us on the tour. They slurp the food right out of your hand and are just too funny sucking it up off like a vacuum. The funny thing is that they're scared of the deer (even though they're bigger!), so they sort of bounce close and bounce back and keep coming back for more. They totally made me laugh--some have this poofy plume-y feathery tail that just looks like they're flaunting their stuff, bouncing their butt up and down. Too much. We all got a big kick out of the them.

Now, we keep moving up and around the property--this shot shows how all throughout the tour, alot of the animals just follow us and the wagon...it's like some crazy Lion King thing where all the animals just move in masses around us. Definitely crazy to look back and to the sides and just see them going in a huge pack with us.

We saw some newborn baby deer that had just been born in the last couple of days. One baby was nicknamed 'Fearless' by Chris, because it got to running and just totally left it's Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters and took off WAY in front of our wagon after it had been right beside us. It was not scared and it just jetted off running as fast as it's little legs could go!

  

The buffalo, bison and longhorns were next...they're sort of the most awkward animals I've seen. It's like they just carry their big huge selves around and look mosey up to you and open wide to get lots of food. These animals can carry up to 3 cups of food in their mouths at a time, so you literally just pour an entire cup into their mouths when they come up to you. Good luck supposedly comes when you touch the tongue of a bison, so we ALL had to do that. Very weird--soft on the bottom, sandpaper on top! We touched the horns of all of them, as well.

 

Camels were last up. They have three camels and one came up to the wagon. They did a great job with the tour and when the camel didn't 'move' up the wagon to each cart, the tour driver made sure he moved for us so that each of us got to see the camel up close and feed him. 2 of the 3 didn't want to come close, even though we begged them to for a while, shaking our feed cups! This one picture makes me laugh because he is no joke, all up in the business. Looking for food!
Ya'll, if you've never been, RUN, take the family, take the friends, whoever, and go to Global Wildlife. It was awesome. I HIGHLY recommend it. You'll never get that close and personal to the animals at a zoo and the people that worked there were friendly, sweet, and really informative.

Might I also suggest a stop to Five Guys Burgers on the way there or home? We went to eat lunch there after...Em and I had never been (love doing all these new things!), and it was a great burger. Might not have lived up to my beloved Shake Shack (hands down, number one, all-time fave!), but it was pretty darn tasty. They have hand-cut french fries, all the free shelled and salted peanuts you can eat, and yummy burgers galore. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of my burger for you--I was too hungry to think about it!

While we were together we made plans for February Bffer day...can't wait to tell you all about it!