Labor Day in Yuba!

For Labor Day we went camping with my Ashlies at Yuba Reservoir. We took our RV and I was expecting so much trouble from it -lots of overheating- but it never did. It was such a champ! On Saturday we headed out on Jake's boat and Ashlee treated us to a feat of bravery! Here she is wake boarding:

Here I am about to go tubing!!!

Round 1, me vs. Eric

Well, I fell off... sorry that picture is missing. Here is round 2, me vs. Eric again:

And... yeah....

Here is round 3, Chris vs. Eric:

Hmmm...I see a pattern emerging.

Round 4, Chris vs. Eric:

Well, Eric was the reingning champ!

On our way down to the beach to take the doggies for a swim, Ashley discovered this lovely item right next to her hand on the chair:

I so wish Tommy would have been there, he would have been ecstatic.

It wasn't aggressive at all and after some curiosity poking, we sent it on its way. Then Nanuk came over to see what all the fuss was about and stepped on it. It was promptly sent to scorpion heaven.

Here's me and the girls down at the beach:

Here's Peanut swimming after the ball:

She really was that far out there, it's not just my crappy camera.

I didn't get any pictures of Nanuk in the water, which is a bummer because it could have possibly been the last time he gets to swim.

Chris brought a sweet kite along that we all got to take turns flying:

Here's my little snuggle having his turn:

With Jake giving some advice:

The sunset we were treated to:

And then, just before we all left, Ashley found this much more harmless creature under their tent:

It's A Real Zoo Out There =)

I am seriously falling behind the times, seems like I'm always playing catch-up from the weekend before.... well two weekends ago we went to the zoo to see an important creature that will shown later. Here's the first animal we came upon: A Big Horn Sheep.

Then, much to Syrena's delight, it was the tiger and her three new cubs. Here's momma:

And here's the three babies chilling out in the bushes:

Daddy (who is not kept in the same enclosure since he'd snack on his children)

Baby Giraffe:

They've got this program going on called "Enrichment" which is really cool - in each enclosure (well, most of them anyway) they give the animals something to do, food in a weird container they have to figure out or a new toy, just something to keep their brains active. I could really tell a difference with the animals. I've been a zoo-goer for years now and seen them all just lying there apathetically, that was not the case this time. They gave the giraffes lettuces in a water jug, you can see him excitedly reaching for it - check out how long that tongue is!

Cheetah:

Snow leopard and her baby, lots of babies this time around, it was cool.

another view of them:

The sloth:

Baby skunk, I want one so bad...

I totally don't remember what these things were called but they were weird! We all thought they were stuffed, they stood there so still but then one of them blinked and moved a little, it was almost scary.

Meerkat, always adorable.

The wolf. Like I said before, I've been going to the zoo forever and prior to this trip, had only seen the wolf once or twice as it dashed past. We timed it so we got over there during her enrichment and got to see her for awhile, tearing things apart and curiously checking things out. It was really awesome.

Owl, Syrena's on a Harry Potter kick right now so she's all about the owls....

Bat-eared fox, how cute!

Porcupines:

The wolf again... my pictures must have gotten all out of order.

Penguins - they were swimming and you never see them doing that. The kids were totally loving that.

Bears, Eric's favorite creature.

They had big ice cubes that they were licking, maybe with something frozen in the middle, I'm not sure but it was cool to watch.

Zebras, someone in the family loves them but I can't remember who.

Stray peacock, it totally thought I couldn't see it with its amazing display of camouflage.

The keeper and a Macaw:

Rhinos:

The elephant, she had a watermelon that she was thoroughly enjoying stomping. There is a baby, but she and mom are currently not out because they are bonding. I think they are supposed to be brought out this week or next week.

Okay, here we come to the whole reason we went. To see some super great creature from Madagascar.. that's right it's: Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches!

Oh maybe that's not right, maybe it's... the Fossa! They spell their name differently from my Foosa, but that's only because I didn't know you spelled Fossa that way. Anyway, here's the creatures my precious is named after:

Playtime!

Man, they really need to make the crocodile exhibit a little safer. The doctors aren't sure if they can reattach Syrena's leg....

Everyone had to drink from the Lion's head before we left:

We were inspired by the zoo's displays of "enrichment" so when we fed the dogs the next morning we made them work for it a bit:

Then it got stuck on Nanuk's face.....