Lake Tobias with the Kiddos!

A couple days ago, Uncle Paul and Auntie Megan took their beautiful, smart, funny, curious, kind, and polite nieces and nephew to Lake Tobias. The last time I was at Lake Tobias was on my own kindergarten field trip!

Lake Tobias is only about 35 minutes away, so it was a short trip. We made up songs and sang the whole way there.

We got to the park right when it opened, which means WE GOT THE BEST PARKING SPOT IN THE WHOLE PLACE!!!! I felt like George Costanza the way I was raving and bragging all day about our parking spot! But when you have three little kids, a double stroller, and lots of bags, you start to appreciate things like good parking spots! (Parents are nodding their heads right now.)

As soon as we got out of the car, we heard an announcement that the first safari tour of the day would be leaving in 15 minutes. We quickly put sunscreen on the kids and boarded the safari bus, which is a school bus without the top. The 45 minute tour took us through the grounds of Lake Tobias to see many of the animals.

We  loved our tour guide!

The animals just came right up to the bus to get fed!

(You could buy treats to feed them. The animals were not afraid of the bus.)

Ellie and Uncle Paul in their safari hats!

Clark was enamored!

My view from the bus.

Deer!

Oh look, a deer is just straight up coming over to the bus.

I was on Clementine and Baby Clark duty.

Well, hello there!

It was just absolutely beautiful out there seeing the animals and the terrain. From the Lake Tobias website: 

"When you and your family board our safari tour, you’ll be transported into another world. You’ll see herds of mammals and flightless birds of all shapes and sizes. With approximately 500 animals moving around freely, you’ll see something different every time you take the tour. Your family will be thrilled by how close the animals come to the tour bus—some will even allow you to touch them!"

We saw all kinds of flightless birds, different types of deer and cows, bison... I forget what else!

After the tour, we checked out a couple animals. Clark loved the birds. Here is is staring down a parrot.

We all loved watching the gibbon monkeys playing, swinging, and running around their cages. One of the gibbons was howling though! It sounded like an ambulance siren. I looked it up and that's just what gibbons do to talk and communicate with others.

The gibbons has a toy car to play with! The kiddos have one too!

Soon the kids started their "I'm hungry" campaign, so we found a shaded picnic table by the lake and ate our packed lunch. Then the kids played at the playground.

Okay, bye Clark...

Then we checked out some more animals! A nice gentleman gave the girls some of the food you're allowed to feed the animals. All of the animals were very interested in food, so they came right up to the fence. These were basically like donkeys, mules, goats, alpacas... You know, friendly animals you wouldn't mind sticking your hand under their mouths.

So far, the best part of the trip was the safari tour. Now it was time for the second best part... THE PETTING ZOO!!!! Basically, you went into a big enclosure that had TONS of goats! Some of the goats were sleeping and cuddling each other, some were walking around, wanting food from the parents and kids that came in to pet them. The goats were so freaking cute! I want a goat!

It was getting hot, so next we went into the reptile house where there were lots of snakes, turtles, frogs, and alligators. Ellie pet a snake and I pet a tiny alligator!

After the reptile house, it was back out into the heat!

We checked out some of the "big" animals we hadn't seen yet, like black bears, bengal tigers, and zebras. There were also lions but I didn't get a picture.

It was soon time to go, but we told the girls we could go back to the petting zoo again. I think we all wanted to pet the goats! There was also a camel near the petting zoo and both girls fed it! I was so proud of Clementine  for being brave enough to do that!

We spent a good five hours at the park and had a TON of fun. Paul and I love spending time with our nieces and nephews. We love seeing them happy and excited. If you live in the area, I highly recommend taking your kiddos to Lake Tobias. Admission is $8 and the safari tour is an extra $6. So if you do it all, it's only $14 per person. Kids 2 and under are free. (Woohoo, Baby Clark!!!) Parking is free. Season passes for unlimited admission are $40 but the safari tour is not included in that.

Have you ever been to Lake Tobias?
What animals would you be most excited to see?