Out of Africa

 About to go on the "safari" bus where you can feed the giraffe. I actually have MANY more giraffe pictures than what I posted. I narrowed them down a bit:)

 Joshua & his old pal, Pilgrim, meet again.

 A water buffalo playing in the water.

 A lazy day for the lizards.

 Tiger Splash show.

 This tiger wasn't going to just jump in the water without checking out the temperature first. Slow & steady...

 Nap time for this bear.

 Pacing for the chicken about to be thrown over....

 Yum!

Incoming!

 We ended the trip seeing the other giraffe. I can't remember the name.

Besides going to Knott's Berry Farm one month early for Joshua's birthday, we planned on going to Out of Africa in Camp Verde too since you get in free in your b-day month plus we had a bogo coupon. Finding a free day in May proved tougher than expected but we did manage to get there. Todd had to take a vacation day because we went on a Tuesday. There are quite a few animals there that have special needs like a nearly blind tiger. This may have been the place Joshua figured out his favorite animal was the giraffe several years ago. There is a safari tram that drives you through a special area to feed a giraffe & see other animals. You can walk through the rest like any zoo but it's not fancy. On certain days they have a predator feed that you can follow the keepers & watch them throw meat over the fences to the tigers,lions,bears, & hyenas. There is also a Tiger Splash "show" that you can see tigers jump into the pool IF the tigers feel like it. The workers have balloons covered in clothes to look like people (somewhat) with meat inside. The tigers this time around were happier making the human jump in the pool while they went in nice & easy if at all. Cats! So finicky.  After we left, we went to Dairy Queen for a very late lunch/early dinner before the  1 1/2 hour drive home.

Next up...lots of Oliver pictures. Shows for the second weekend start up again tomorrow. We were told that there will be a magazine photographer at one of the shows as the cast/show will be featured in an article. I'm hoping I can snap a whole cast shot at the same time. I don't know how this came about but I do know that there was a judge at opening night. I guess people know who he is but I wasn't told who he was until after he asked Hannah for her autograph. He apparently gets everyone to sign his program. That's a first for her!