Fun in the Sun!

Last weekend was one full of fun and adventure for the Cole family!  Our first visitors (other than family) had made it across the mountains to stay with us.  Matt's best friend, Greg, and his family came over to go to Silverwood and they stayed at our house for the weekend.  Matt, Stella and I were so excited to have company. 

They made their way over on Thursday night and left on Friday to spend the day at Silverwood.  On Saturday, we spent the day enjoying the beautiful sunshine and going on adventures.  We began by grabbing some yummy sandwiches at the High Nooner cafe and then we drove up north to visit the CatTales Zoo.  While we were there we saw a ton of Tigers, a beautiful white tiger named Zeus, several lynxes and a HUGE lion. Oh and for those of you who just said, "Lions and tigers and bears...oh my!" - yes...there were bears too :)

There were quite a few fun memories of the zoo.  There was 1 tiger named Charlie who had decided he was done being on show for everyone and he started roaring and making some very intimidating noises.  As he was roaring, several other tigers started pacing and getting agitated.  The Zoo also has a big cat adventure package you can buy where you can hand feed a tiger or lion so we got to watch several people feed the lion through a small hole in a big cage.  The lion jumped off his big throne and leisurely ate the raw meat off of the skewer through the tiny hole and then he proceeded to turn his booty towards the fence and pee on it.  Then he regally hopped back up to his throne, as the king of the jungle is expected to do.  It is hard to put in to words just how magnificent the lion really was.  While standing on all 4 legs, the top of his mane would have probably reached my chin level.  He was a pretty incredible animal.  Stella wasn't too impressed but she enjoyed getting out of the house. 

Perhaps the most interesting thing occurred when a woman walked into the zoo with her service dog.  As you can imagine, other animals are not allowed in the zoo, however they have to allow service animals by law.  Most of the cats ignored the little dog but there was 1 tiger who was extremely curious about that little creature.  He jumped out towards the cage and started pacing/hunting as the little dog passed.  Even when the dog was out of his site, he continued to jump up and down off of the rocks and pace the fence line.  I think he began picturing us all like big steaks (like in the movie Madagascar).

After we enjoyed the cats at the zoo, we went up to Green Bluff and enjoyed some ice cream and then continued on home where the kids played outside in the sprinkler.  Stella still can't really get out in the sun so we kept her in the shade but we used it as an excuse to get her in her swimsuit.  Here is a picture of Matt holding Stella in her adorable swimsuit from our friend Jenny. 

Once the kids were done playing in the sprinkler, we finished out the wonderful day with a barbecue in our backyard.  Sadly, we had to say goodbye the next morning but we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them and can't wait till they come back to visit in the fall!

I hope you all had a great weekend, as well!