Wildlife Safari

If you know me well, you know I love animals. I would say I'm borderline annoying about it- just ask any of my hunting-inclined in-laws. I heard about this place when we first moved to Oregon, and have always wanted to go, but it's 3 and a half hours away, so I've never been able to justify a trip out. Since my mom and brother were here, I suggested we take a little road trip to Winston, OR to go to the Wildlife Safari. I'm so glad we did. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. We left the house at 5:30, to be there when they opened at 9. As soon as we got there, we went and bought tickets for our special "animal encounters" we wanted to do later. The guy at the front told us that the animals are fed around 8-8:30, so the best time to see them was right around 9. So we drove through the 600 acre park of free-roaming animals. It was really neat. Our drive took us about an hour, and by the time we were finished, Jade had made it to the park (he was in southern OR working, so he just met up with us there). We walked around the safari village, where they have all sorts of cool animals plus a petting zoo, train, jungle gym and camel rides. Peyton immediately wanted to ride on a camel, so Noni took her on a ride (Jade had no desire to go, and Chaz and I had both already done it, so we let Noni have the honors). Peyton was so into the camel. She asked his name and his friend's name (there were 2 camels there). She wanted to know about what he ate and where he lived. She has been talking about Calvin ever since, and when asked what her favorite part of the Safari (or "fari") was, she will respond- riding the camel! We walked around the zoo part of the village until our first encounter started, the Elephant Barn. It was incredible. The trainers had an elephant in the main pen waiting for us (usually they're free-roaming during the day). When we came in, George did all sorts of tricks for us; waving, hopping, playing the tambourine, blowing his nose on a hankie, playing harmonica, and a few other little tricks. Then we were each allowed to walk up and feed him a carrot, and then we were allowed to pet his trunk. It was all so neat. After we drove back from the elephant barn, we went right on to our next encounter, giraffe feeding. This was an awesome experience. Giraffes are probably my favorite animal, and something you really would never have the opportunity to come in contact with (even at most zoos and things). I was so excited for this one. We got on a high bed truck with about 4 other people and a guide, and drove to where the giraffes are in the park. Right when they saw us coming, they walked up to the truck. The guide said they learned really fast that those trucks mean extra food. The main giraffe that was at our truck the whole time was JT (which Jade JT Thelin thought was pretty great). He was the oldest, and had been in several battles for the top-spot, so he had a lot of scar tissue on his pretty head. We were all able to feed him lettuce to our hearts' content. It was really amazing. After that, we decided to call it a day and head back to Portland, though I would have been happy staying until closing.

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These pictures are from our initial drive through. It's really incredible- the animals just walk right up to your car. You can keep your windows and sun roof down, and get as close as you can. A few times we had to just sit and wait because some kind of animal was in the middle of the trail and wouldn't move.This guy was only a couple feet from my door.He was enormous. I would have been scared except I think they are so used to cars that they don't really pay any attention to people.

These guys are behind an electric fence. I had to zoom out all the way on my camera to get both of them, they were so close. I could have touched the wire, and they were just inches from it. One just slept the whole time, and the other was digging himself a nice hole to cool off from the sunshine. His claws were so big and so sharp. He tore through the earth like it was softened butter.

Two other bears were playing up top, but I didn't get a great shot.

I wish I remembered what she was looking at. I love her expression here.These pictures are from the "Village" part of the Safari.

The Wildlife Safari is one of the top cheetah breeding facilities in the world, and they also are working on a program where they shepherd puppies with flocks of livestock, so the dog bonds with the livestock and will bark to scare away predators. This will help minimize the killing of cheetahs by the farmers who don't want them preying on their herds. The Wildlife Safari brought up this cheetah and shepherd dog together since infancy, and they are best friends. It is so cute to watch them. They just hang out together all day. We were about 1 foot away from that chain link fence, and we could hear the cheetah purring as it was laying there and walking around. In the petting zoo they had goats, and there were 3 brand new babies- only a week old! They were darling.

This is Peyton and I by the camel. Not the best picture. It was probably Chaz who took it.

The emus poke their heads in people's cars. Peyton saw one go #2 and talked about it literally all day.

Little George

They have super coarse little whiskers all over their trunks. Since we've been home from the safari, Peyton keeps talking about how Tink's whiskers are like the elephant's whiskers.

JT

They have super long tongues that are black and a little sticky. Peyton kept saying, "I don't like his slobber."

This was my self picture of me feeding JT.

Seconds before this picture was taken, JT started licking Peyton's flower. It was so funny. Peyton's reaction was priceless. I wish more than anything we would have gotten video of it.

The two other giraffes were loving on each other. I had to snap a picture.

Noni and Uncle Chaz

My mom decided to take advantage of my little sister's spring break (in which she went to Youth Conference for 3 days, and spent the rest of the week with one of her friends) by coming up to visit us! Chaz heard she was coming and wanted to come too, so we had been looking forward to a fun visit from them for weeks. My mom came in on Wednesday, and after we picked her up from the airport, we all took nice, long naps. When we woke up, we did a couple errands, then took Peyton to the pet store to look at all the animals (one of her favorite things to do). Then we went to dinner at Chevy's and came home and went to bed nice and early. Chaz came in Thursday morning, and while we were waiting to leave for the airport, we let Peyton color Easter eggs. She loved it for about 15 minutes, then she got bored. Naturally my mom and I finished the rest of the eggs. Her least favorite part about the whole thing was the dye that got on her hands. She kept telling me she needed to wash them with soap over and over. She certainly doesn't like things messy. After we picked up Chaz, we drove around downtown so he could see some of Portland. We cam home and put Peyton down for a nap, and then my mom and I did something we've both wanted to do forever- we took an aerial trapeze and fabric climbing class. It was awesome. The trapeze wasn't high off the ground (unfortunately), it wasn't a flying trapeze school, but that will be our next class. We had such a great time. We both were pretty good at it, too. The fabric climbing is so much harder than it looks. It requires so much body strength. I was sore for 3 days after. After class we came home and picked up Chaz and Peyton, then drove into downtown Portland, showed Chaz the waterfront, then went to dinner at a yummy little restaurant called Mother's Bistro. They serve a mean pot roast. It was delicious. Then we went to Voo-Doo Doughnuts and waited in a really short (for Voo-Doo) 25 minute line to get our doughnuts. Chaz had seen Voo-Doo on the Food Network and really wanted to go check it out. And after all that, guess what kind of doughnut he got: regular, chocolate glazed. My mom was even worse and got the original glazed doughnut. Peyton was more adventurous and got a doughnut with M&M's on it, and I got the same grape one I had the last time I went. We also bought a bubble gum flavored one and a blueberry filled one, just to taste. Chaz's was by far the best one.

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Peyton was so excited for them to come to town that she was a little restless. So she fingerpainted.

I love the determination on her little face.We cracked one of the eggs, but there are our masterpieces! I wish I would have turned the all blue one a little. I made one special for Jade with a Y on it.

Trapeze

I was spinning in these pictures, but you can't really tell.

Learning to climb fabric. Very hard.

I made it!

Then I got ballsy (is that vulgar?) and started trying tricks.

2 Easter Parties

This week we had 2 Easter parties; our ward Easter party, and one for our play group. Peyton had a blast at both. She's such a social little thing. I love watching her interact with people. Mostly she just likes older kids and adults. She doesn't have a lot of patience for kids her own age. She is [almost] 3, going on about 12. For the play group party, Peyton was adamant about choosing her own fancy dress. Since I knew she was probably going to get messy, I chose a couple outfits that I wouldn't mind her getting dirty, and she picked her favorite. It seemed to be a good compromise. Peyton kept telling me, "Mommy I look very fancy." It was so cute. She is without a doubt a very girly girl.Peyton and cute Brock.She was so excited about her cupcake. She ate every little bit of frosting, and left the entire cake.The kids and moms waiting for the Easter egg hunt to start. Peyton was so excited about collecting her eggs, and wanted to open them all up and see what was inside.

Ketchup

I feel like we haven't had a whole lot going on this month, but now that I'm sitting down getting ready to write about it all, I realized we actually have been kind of busy. Here's my effort at a catch-up post.

Peyton still likes to choose her own outfits. I give her options, and she can pick one. For gymnastics and ballet, the current favorite is the hot pink leotard with rhinestones, and at home, she likes her ski jacket and a pettiskirt.

Peyton is one of only 2 big kids in her nursery class. There are 4 kids around 6 months younger than her, 5 kids around a year younger than her, and 4 kids a year and a half younger than her. Sometimes I expect her to come home and say, "Mom, I feel like a babysitter in there." Because that's what I would feel like if I were her. The nursery leaders came up with a cute little incentive for the big girls in class. They get these pictures that say "You were a smartie today! You made good choices and were a good example." Peyton has been loving getting the special "awards" every week. Last Sunday Peyton didn't get one though. She wanted a toy that a little boy had (20 months old), and when he wouldn't give it to her, she bent down and bit him. On the forehead. I was shocked to hear about that. She hasn't bitten since she was probably about a year and a half old. I have no idea where that came from. She got paid back though, later that day she was helping the nursery leaders clean up toys, and one little boy was mad that she was cleaning up the toy he wanted to play with, so he grabbed her by her hair and was pulling her down to the floor. It's like fight club in there. I think fair's fair.

Jade has been hard at work- last month he won the Agent of the Month for the whole greater Oregon area, as well as the New Organization Agent of the Month (out of all the new guys, who have been there under 3 years). He won the Agency MVP award, Agency All-Star Award, and the Class Leader Award (for all the guys who started the same year as him). He was the top producer in the office last month. He really does have the best work ethic of anyone I know. Great job, hon!

One weekend he had to go to Bend for some work, and he invited Peyton and I to come along for a little weekend getaway. Justin and Ashley were nice enough to let us stay at their place, and we had a great mini-vacation. Peyton keeps asking if we can go back to Eagle Crest. We played tennis, rode bikes and scooters, went on walks, and went to the pool (actually we only went to the hot tub- Peyton is her mother's daughter and refuses to swim in water that is cooler than about 90 degrees). On our drive home, Jade and I decided to surprise Peyton by stopping on Mt. Hood and letting her play in the snow. This was a great idea, and she and Tink were both ecstatic, but it was a blizzard. Literally. They only ended up playing in the snow for about 10 minutes. I opted to stay in the car with my seat heater on.

Jade made Peyton a gigantic marble track.

I kept wanting them to smile for a picture. They were snow-blind though. Peyton was saying, "it hurts my eyes" over and over. She told me that next time she wanted sunglasses.

I love the snow flurries in their eyelashes and eyebrows

Peyton still loves gymnastics. I realized that though we've been taking classes since January, I didn't have a single picture, so I brought my camera one day. Bars are her favorite (they were always mine, too). She likes beam, but the high beam always makes her nervous. Floor is fun for her for about 5 minutes, then she wants to run over to the bars. Her coaches are Coach Tasha and Coach Monika (pronounced mo-ny-ka). She loves them both and talks about them all week.

This makes me laugh. You can see the worry all over her face.

I thought it would be fun to plant something with Peyton, just because it's something we've never done. We bought 2 topsy-turvy planters, one for strawberries and one for tomatoes. She had such a good time doing "my gardens", and checks them several times a day. I seriously hope something grows in them.

More Peyton Funnies (mostly posted for mom and Noni's benefit)

Peyton Funnies February - April 2011 -Peyton was digging through my mom's H&M shopping bag. She pulled out a gray shirt my mom bought and said "(GASP) Oh... My... GOSH!" I can't blame her, H&M is a really good store. -Jade finally got his iPhone from Verizon. Peyton has been really excited about it. One day she wanted to play with it, but he was using it, so she asked, "Can I babysit it?" Such a smarty. -"Excuse us." Instead of "excuse me"- I think she has a mouse in her pocket. -"My daddy works a lot." So sad! -When we talk to her daddy throughout the day, and when he comes home from work, she always asks, "How are you doing daddy? How was your day? How was your work? It was not busy?" -I gave her some cough medicine (it's herbal, made from different honeys) and right after she finished it she said, "I feel better!" -We were babysitting Baby Brek and she absolutely loved it. She followed him around trying to hold him, and she would say, "Hi buddy. How are you buddy?" She wanted to help feed him and change his diaper and everything! Then she told me, "Mom, I want to pet him." -She has an imaginary cousin named Charlotte (in addition to her actual cousin named Charlotte). She will turn on her music in her room and pretend to be tucking Charlotte in, then shut the door behind her and say "Charlotte's sleeping." She also will blame things on Charlotte, like spills and whenever she does something she knows was breaking the rules. She'll say "Charlotte do it." She also sometimes tells me "Charlotte hits." -When she woke up from her nap one day, I asked her what she dreamt about. She told me, "Jesus." -She prays by herself now. It makes me smile every single time. Some time it's just spontaneous. She'll just fold her arms and start to pray. It's darling. One night she was playing with a rubber band that she had found, we asked her to say the dinner prayer, and she prayed "thanks my rubber band." Precious. -She has recently started wiping off kisses. It started with Tink's, moved to mine, and now she even wipes off Jade's. -She has a new "tell". When she's doing something she's not supposed to do, and we can't see her, she'll yell out "I'm not _____________ (insert illegal behavior)!" For example, she'll yell from her playroom "I'm not picking my nose!" Or, she'll be eating in her high chair and we'll be cleaning up after the meal and she'll yell, "I didn't throw my paper towel!" Dead giveaway, girl, every time. -She picked up this gem somewhere... "Ugh!" I'm guessing I have my 15 year old sister to thank for that one. -Every single day when Jade comes home from work, there is a race between Tink and Peyton as to who gets to greet him first. We can hear the garage open, so they know when he gets here. They will push each other and step over each other trying to get to him first. Peyton eventually worked out a really successful strategy; she gets herself into the laundry room (between the house and the garage) and will shut the door on Tink, so Tink is stuck in the main part of the house and she can see Jade without fighting Tink. It's actually a pretty smart move. -She has started answering me in the affirmative with, "sure." It's not sassy, so it doesn't bother me, but I can't quite figure out where she picked up "Sure." -Peyton has apparently inherited her father's salesmanship skills. She will now totally "sell" us on any idea that she has. My nephew started the same thing when he was about 4, and they started calling him the "Priceline Negotiator". I think Peyton is a mini-Priceline Negotiator. She will be doing something (say, playing with my makeup), and we will tell her that she's not allowed to play with that, and redirect her. Meanwhile, she'll make every effort to establish when she will be able to play with it. "Maybe I play with it later." "No, my makeup isn't a toy. You may not play with it later." "Maybe after nap." "No, honey not after nap." "Maybe when I'm 3." "No, honey, not when you're 3." The same goes for when she wants something, like to take a bath in the sink, or play with bubbles. -I cannot believe what a little chatterbox my little girl is. I know part of that is genetics, but I whole-heartedly believe that my early-communication with her by sign language gave her a huge head start on her communication skills. That little girl can really talk! She will go on and on until someone stops her. Recently we were at the grocery store and the check-out lady was getting an earful from Peyton. She was asking her all sorts of questions and the lady said "Wow- I'm really getting an interview!" I told her she had no idea. Then Peyton started asking her about work, and what she did at work, and why she worked and I told her everyone needs to work to pay the bills. Peyton said she works, so I asked her what she was going to do for work. The lady quickly answered, "She's going to be in broadcast journalism!" She is certainly cut out for the job! -After shutting Tink in her bedroom, Peyton said, "Bye, Tink. See you later. I'm going to Utah." -"Cupcake Scows" = Cub Scouts -Jerai and Boyd were visiting, and we went to pick them up one morning. Jerai put Boyd in the car and he was having a tantrum (something we know all about in our house). After he stopped, Peyton said very matter-of-factly, "Aunt Jerai, Boyd is whining." -Peyton bumped into something with her top half and said, "my boob!" Jade thought it was hilarious, but I was mortified. I only say "chest" around her. Where did she hear "boob"? -In a prayer over dinner, she said, "Thank you for we can drive, so we can go places and we can go to the park..." -Peyton has an absolutely phenomenal memory. 2 weeks ago we were at the grocery store, and she struck up a conversation with the lady who was bagging our groceries. It went like this; "What's your name?" "My name's Sally, what's your name?" "Peyton. What's your doggy's name?" (this is her standard order of questions every single time) "I don't have a dog." "What's your kitty's name?" "I don't have a kitty either. I only have a hamster." "What's your hamster's name?" "I just call him hammy." By this time, we were ready to leave, so we said goodbye. Today, 2 weeks later, we were at that same store, being checked out, and the same lady was bagging our groceries. Peyton said, "What's your name?" "Sally" "What's your hamster's name?" "What?" At this point I registered what she was talking about and told Sally, "She remembers you have a hamster and wants to know his name." Sally remembered now and said she couldn't believe Peyton had remembered that short conversation from 2 weeks past. I have a hard time remembering what I ate for breakfast the same day. -Peyton has started asking me, "You want to hang out with me?" I'm taking full advantage of having her actually want to hang out with me. I know there will be a time when I'm not quite cool enough for her presence. -She is on a name kick. I mentioned her standard order of questions: "What's your name?" "What's your doggy's name?" "What's your kitty's name?" One time the person didn't have a dog or a cat so she was quiet for a minute (obviously concentrating really hard), then asked, "What's your bird's name?" She also sometimes asks, "What's your daddy's name?" "What's your mommy's name?" What's your little girl's name?" She will ask this to everyone she sees. I am not exaggerating or kidding. She will stop people who are walking by us, she will ask people in lines, any employees of any place we are, children, adults, men, women, everyone! It's really cute and almost everyone is really nice about answering her questions and being gracious. I get lots of compliments on how social and friendly she is. -In her quest to find out the name of everyone in Portland and their pets, she has learned about name tags. She obviously can't read them, but she knows that they say a person's name. She has an imaginary friend named "Sayar" who she talks about once in awhile. One time she asked me my name (usually I reply with something silly), then I asked her name and she said, "I'm Sayar. I have a name tag." -She picked up this cute little habit of stroking my face and saying, "It's okay, darling." She will do it when I'm holding her or rocking her or laying down by her. It is the sweetest little thing. -We went for a short weekend-trip to Eagle Crest, where we stayed at Jade's brother's vacation home. We went out to dinner there one night and Jade told Peyton it was time to go home and go to bed. Peyton asked Jade, "Where?" Jade told her we were going to Uncle Justin and Aunt Ashley's. Peyton said she didn't want to sleep there. Jade said that that was fine, she could just sleep in the car with Tinky. He then asked if she wanted to sleep in the house with us, or in the car with Tink. Peyton was quiet for a minute, thinking really hard, then asked, "I have my binky in the car?" She's a clever little thing. She always thinks really hard about everything. I truly am constantly amazed at how much her brain absorbs. -Sometimes when she wants a lot of something (usually toys or food), I tell her she has plenty. Now if she asks for something and I tell her no, she'll pipe right up, "I have plenty?" -Peyton knew Jade was leaving us one Saturday to go work, and she was so sad he was going. She said, "I don't want daddy to go to work." It was so sweet. -Lacie (who is Peyton's absolute favorite person, even more than mom or dad) came to watch one of Peyton's ballet classes. Peyton didn't know she was coming, and she didn't notice Lacie walk in. After Lacie had been there about 5 minutes, Peyton finally noticed her. She gasped out loud and ran over to Lacie and jumped in her arms. Then she ran over to Miss Katie and said, "That's Lace! She's my friend!" -Peyton asked me if she could get married, and go to the temple and be fancy. I told her of course she could. She said, "I want Cheyanne to go with me." Girl loves her auntie. -Peyton said she wanted to go on the computer and I asked her why. She said, "I need to go on facebook." The ironic part is that neither Jade nor I are really into facebook. I think she picked that up from Cheyanne. -Peyton (again) asked me if she could get married. I told her yes, she would get married, then asked who she thought she was going to marry. She told me, "Brock and Alec." I said, "Oh, you want to marry Brock and Alec? You can't merry them both, you can only marry one boy." Peyton told me, very matter of factly, "I want 2 boys." I thought to myself, "one is plenty."