Signs of Spring (will they last?)

Toby's begun to pant after exercising outside in the warmth

Wild Wilderness Drive-thru Safari

On Friday after all of the painting was complete Stephanie and I took the 10 minute drive to our local safari. Who would have thought such a place would exist in Gentry, Arkansas, population around 2000? Carrie first gave me the heads up about this place when she saw it on TV in an episode of TLC's "17 Kids and Counting" awhile ago. Then I happened to run across the signs for it when I took a wrong turn trying to get home from the post office one day. The variety of animals they had was quite impressive!

First we went to the barns filled with monkeys, parrots, parakeets, and other animals not quite ready for the cold air. There were gibbons, siamangs, baboons, capuchins, and on and on. This lemur runs free we're told. We all kept asking if anyone knew he was out - maybe they should put up a sign! His buddies are stuck in a cage right behind him.

I wouldn't want to come across this African porcupine in the wild - look at those quills. This guy has much longer and thicker ones than the American varieties I've seen. When these guys had them extended they were probably 1.5-2 ft long!

Next we went to the petting zoo and fed the goats. Then on to the kangaroo pen.

This was my favorite part of the whole place. They were so friendly and seemed to like having their heads petted. They are SO soft - just like a bunny!

How can this be comfortable - both for the joey and for the mamma. Every once in awhile she would poke him with her paw to tell him to move.

Next we went through the 10 mile drive-thru. It was divided into sections with lots of different animals - some in cages, some loose. There were the usual lions, tigers, bears, wolves, bobcats, and cougars (all in cages of course), then loose were emus, ostrich, all kinds of longhorn and foreign cattle, wildebeasts, camels, zebra, and on and on. Everybody had an itch including this camel who decided to use the rear view mirror to scratch it. This bison below had one too and used his feeding trough. You can't tell but this guy is huge - his hump almost came to the top of my car. Apparently this place started partially because they wanted to breed bison and other free range stock with domestic cattle.

Yak and baby

The tigers loved these towers

This white rhino was MASSIVE. He was as tall and wider than the human doorway in this building. You can see how tall he is compared to the height of the roof! The rhino we saw in Africa had nothing on this guy!

(First) Spring break

Stephanie came to spend a week of her spring break with us!

You can see our new picture (on the wall behind Ryan) found on sale at Kirklands. We finally got to play Settlers one night when Ryan got home a little earlier than usual. It was great - even though I lost. I had no chance as you can see - Ryan was blue and Stephanie was red. When a 5 was rolled they cleaned out the bank! I think Ryan won but Stephanie would have won on her next turn. I had only 7 points... only because I had the largest army.

Then, since painting is always so much more fun when there are 2 people instead of one, Stephanie and I went and raided the maintenance paint closet and enjoyed two days of painting. Day 1 we did the baseboards and doors in the main living area and then the next day we tackled the maroon walls in the master bathroom. It took 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of dover white to finish it! Toby had to stay outside for most of the adventure. He acted like he didn't like it but he certainly had fun watching the cows and chasing moles and his tail. He did, however, love the drop cloth. He took naps on it and sat on it whenever he had the chance. This picture is his best "I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be on this or not" look.

Very ready for the last coat to be over!

We dog sat for the Rectors (English teacher that lives next door) overnight this weekend. They think Buddy is a schnauzer/poodle (so what is that called?) and he's getting up in years. Toby wanted to play play play and Buddy wasn't so sure. But when Toby eventually calmed down they got along quite well.

"I'm just too old for the antics of this weird little Toby dog. This nice man is much better."

Saturday nights in the gym

We've spent the last two Saturday nights in the gym since Ryan has been in charge of events there.

Here's the refs for dodgeball last week - Ryan and Kevin (taskforce chaplain)

*****

This weekend was young alumni. On Saturday night old Skyhawks/Lady Hawks players play the current players. The games are always very close we hear but the current students usually pull off the win. This year was no exception.

Ryan had a few songs playing to pump the crowd up including YMCA. Britney Zambrano sang the national anthem for a packed house and the associate pastor - Paul Vunileva - had WAY too much fun being the announcer. He called out the starting lineups like a pro. Somehow I ended up getting pictures mostly of the girls game - probably because I ended up helping one of the girls who sat down hard and twisted her back way into the guys game.

There were several alumni around that we knew from SAU. You can see Jeff Manly and his girlfriend in this picture standing by the wall (below). Jeff's girlfriend is entering chemo for bone cancer in a few weeks. She needs lots of prayer - I can't imagine going through that! Andrew Decker who lives here and was a PE classmate of Ryan's was playing in the game. His dad who is the boy's dean was yelling at the current students and coaches getting them riled up.

Becoming home

If the first set of home pictures were a "before" - take this as an "in between"

After the clock fell to its death from above the laundry door, we got a bigger one and changed its resting place.

After hours of pulling a rug doctor around and waiting for the carpet to dry, it sure is nice to have the table and chairs out of the middle of the kitchen!

After 3 trips to the furniture store to collect our new things, we have our new living room furniture set up (minus the maroon and green curtains like those in the dining room which should be coming next week). It was all brought together by the rug Mary Jane and Randy found in MI - look where it took us!

The lamp shades really aren't pink... they are maroon.

Toby approves

Ozark goes to Oz & the Valentine's Masquerade

On Saturday night we went down to watch the Senior class' 2nd production of the musical Wizard of Oz. I was amazed at their acting, singing, costumes and backdrops - so I thought I'd put up a few pictures. These pictures are from the Ozark website (courtesy of Mr. Fisher probably) from their 1st production 2 weeks ago.

Winston, Sam, and Vinny as munchkins

"We're off to see the Wizard!"

The Tin Man - (Min Su Kim, who is really Japanese, but did a great Tin Man) - and the Wizard. The Wizard's hot air balloon said "Senior Trip or Bust" on it.

Then today was the Valentines banquet. Ryan helped them set up the gym this morning. It was a masquerade theme. They made chandeliers to hang from the ceiling. The floor was covered with a massive tarp to protect it.

Ryan sang Oh My Darlin' Clementine as 1st Tenor with a faculty quartet.
L to R: Leandro Bizama (music teacher), Ryan, Charlie Barber (VP and history/social sciences), & Kevin ? (taskforce chaplain and Ozark alumnus)
There was a part in the middle where they went into a minor key when Clementine dies and they all turned around and acted like they were crying. It was quite funny! I tried to take a video of it on my camera but it didn't work out.

And Toby's reaction to the weekend?
"Please say you're not going to leave me here alone again!"