Last Week of Summer!

Well, we did it, we survived summer 2019! And had a great time doing it. Our last week was spent mostly trying to get things back in gear - we bought all of our school supplies, organized new back packs and lunch boxes, figured out first day of school outfits, the usual.

Here they are, apres swim, having some popcorn and observing the butterflies in Gigi's yard.

We also did a lot of stuff with friends - it's nice to have neighbor kids in and out having fun, and on Friday, we took it up a notch and went down to San Diego County to visit an animal sanctuary called Lions, Tigers and Bears. They have about 30 animals on the property, and all of the big animals are rescues - most of their back stories are incredibly sad, as they were part of the exotic animal trade, or bred to be used in cub photography (usually the animals are then destroyed at 12 weeks when they're no longer cuddly enough for photos) or one tiger was used as a brood mare, and had over 200 cubs before coming to the sanctuary.

They offer tours throughout the week, and it's a great way to learn about the animals and what they do for them. During the tour the animals can come over to the fence for a snack, which most of them do (they are very firm about how no one ever touches the animals or goes into their cages, but obviously, since they're not trying to release them back into the wild, it's okay if they learn to come and be friendly at the fence) and it was so awesome!

Moon Bears coming for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Bob cat time

This guy actually roared at us, which was amazing! And the cougar, Pumpkin (not pictured) actually meowed at the keeper when she came over with the food and meowed to get her attention.

Jaguar having some enrichment activities. She loves pinecones, and even big cats do "if I fits, I sits" with cardboard boxes.

The most amazing part? I paid into a raffle and won the chance to feed an animal of my choosing! So, I picked the tiger. This is me and Maverick.

It was SO COOL. Even though he's enormous, he still was very delicate taking the meat off the fork. I wish I could have reached through and petted him on his big, beautiful head. But I did not, because I mostly follow rules. The kids had such a fun time, well worth the extended drive. Summer fun memories for all!