It had been a while since we had gone on an official family outing. Our last big thing was Legoland. I frequently receive email updates from Fisher Price and noticed one that told of an upcoming Fisher Price event at the Wild Animal Park. They were going to have a new toy exhibit and some characters there. I thought it would be a fun outing with an added toy bonus.
Originally, my sister had planned to meet us there. Unfortunately for us she was on call at work. That was fortunate for her, though, because it was hotter than blazes out there! Add that to the miles of uphill walking we did and, well, no pregnant women should have to do that. Instead we planned to meet up later for dinner but she periodically called to check in to see what we were up to.
As it turned out, the Fisher Price event was really not all that spectacular. It was a large, sweltering tent that was sectioned off into three areas: motorized vehicles, scary characters, and new toys. Being the anti line waiters we are, we opted not to wait for the motorized vehicles. What Natalie didn't know, wouldn't hurt her. We opted to try out the new toys. The first thing that caught Nat's eye was called Color Me Gems. Basically it was a vanity set up with silver-plastic jewelry pieces that the kids dotted with markers to give the illusion of sparkling gems. The spokes person was giving everyone the chance to make a necklace. Of course Matthew likes shiny things and was very happy to color (or should I say dot) his own necklace. He wore it the whole day. That was the highlight of the toy tent. They looked at the various toys, but didn't really want to jump in and play with strangers, especially Matthew. He is now at the age where he is easily overwhelmed so he was good just holding on to my leg.
Aside from it being a hot and sweltering day, we had some highlights. After we left the toy tent we begin our walk to check out the mountain goats, California condor, and some plants. On our way back down we stopped by a bubbling brook. In the midst of the woods we say three people walking a dog, no a cheetah . . . . No, a dog and a cheetah! Apparently, the Wild Animal Park has a tame cheetah who has a pet dog. The dog helps the cheetah cope with situations that might cause it to become nervous and instinctively activate it's flight response. Anyway, the trainers asked it they could walk the cheetah by us with the instructions for us to keep our feet planted and not to make any sudden moves. They were not more than a foot away! My biggest fear was that Matthew would reach out to try to touch it. They sat the cheetah on a rock opposite us for a few minutes and did a little question and answer session for us and two other families. Very cool! We could even hear it purring loudly. It was really amazing to be that up close with such a wild animal.
The cheetah was certainly hard to top, but we also got to see three large elephants (including a bull with very large tusks) swimming. The bull was already in the swimming hole when we approached the exhibit but the water must have looked so inviting to the other two elephants and they joined in. At one point they were almost completely submerged with only the tops of their heads sticking out. Again, very cool.
Natalie had the chance to participate in a show. At the very end they called all the kids up to the stage to grab rain sticks. She trotted right off but Matthew refused to go. The kids had to shake their rain sticks and then they were all squirted with water.
We finished our day with a ride on the carousel, a trip to the gift shop, and dinner with Auntie and Uncle Joe. All in all, it was a fun day. Sure we did a lot of walking and it was hotter than Hades, but the kids had a great time and we made some new memories.
