Military Museum and our last Sunday together

Since Dan is an army guy, Chuck wanted to show him the military museum just down the street from our flat.

There are a lot of manly machines there.

On Sunday we took them to the Cosmo City Branch.  Kelly, who is primary president, had her primary kids color some pictures and write some notes.  She shared these with the kids in this branch.  There wasn't much time or organization to have them draw and write notes back,

but Kelly ended up playing the piano for primary and I ended up being chorister.  Good thing we've had some experience before.

Boy are we going to miss these kids when they leave.  Callie even asked what we were going to do without them.

Glad they all came for a visit.  See you at Christmas time.

Mormon Helping Hands

It was Mormon Helping Hands day in South Africa so we went back to the Kensington and Johannesburg 2 Ward to help with the clean up project around their building.  There was so much trash and dirt and mud.  The girls were great trash finders and met with their friends Rory Leona again to clean the fence and the church sign.  It was a fun morning!

Zipline Adventure

Gotta try something a little daring.

Tessa and Callie were so brave and so good and enjoyed this afternoon so much!

We conquered the ravine!

Pilanesburg Game Reserve - Morning drive

The next day we were surprised when a few zebras showed up at the water hole. We were very lucky to see them up close like this.

The morning drive is always much colder that the evening drive, so we really bundled up.

Our guide got a call that there was a group of lions to see so we tried to rush to the spot, but this family of elephants had a different idea.  This matriarch would not let us pass.  Our guide would drive close to pass and she would warn us away.  In the end she ended up charging us with her head and trunk swaying back and forth, her ears splayed wide open and bellowing at us.  We never did get to see the lions, but we had the most awesome encounter with about 20 elephants.

You just can't believe the scenery is real. It is so beautiful and so Africa!

Little did we realize when we booked the family suite for these cuties that it would include a pool, a backyard, a living room and a fireplace. It couldn't have been any better!

Pilanesburg Game Park - Game drive #1

We arrived at the Ivory Tree Game Lodge and were minding our own business eating our lunch around the pool, when you can imagine our surprise when a herd of 25 wild elephants showed up at the water hole at the edge of the property.  It was surreal.

The girls just watched these animals fight and bellow and drink all they could before moving on.  There were several small babies in the group.

On our first game drive we saw all of the Big 5 - lion, rhino, Cape buffalo, leopard, and elephant.  This zebra was cool to see too.

Tessa had her own camera and took a close up of the wildebeest.

We saw a whole family of rhino's out for an evening stroll.

Half way through the 3 hour ride, we stopped for some drinks and cookies before starting up again to see more of the wild animals.

The Elephant Sanctuary and Bush Babies Monkey Park

Tessa was a natural on the huge elephant.

Callie was not afraid at all and loved her ride.

Kelly is just a natural animal lover and loved petting the not-so-smooth elephant trunk.

Only 3 were brave enough to get an elephant kiss.  Kelly was first and got the sloppiest kiss of all.  She even had to clean her teeth off.

Dan made sure that he wasn't getting any elephant snot in his mouth.

And Chuck was used to the kisses since this was his 3rd time.

Don't let this cute little monkey fool you.  His previous owners had trained him as a pick pocket.  He came over to Chuck so sweet and friendly and while he climbed up his leg, his tail was stealing Chuck's wallet right out of his back pocket.

Fortunately our monkey guide saw what was happening and grabbed the tail of the monkey before he could escape with all of Chuck's money and credit cards.  The monkey screamed plenty loud because he didn't get to keep his loot, and his fellow monkey buddies came over with their teeth bared to protect their friend.

Day 4 - The Rhino Lion Park

The Rhino Lion Park is a self drive game reserve.  First up we visited the baby animal creche.  We had fun playing with the lion cubs.  They are wild and they do have sharp claws!

Then we moved over to the tiger enclosure.  Tigers aren't native to South Africa, 

but they were fun to see up close.

Looks like the baby tiger loved their pets so much that he went to sleep.

On our drive we saw many animals.  It was surprising how close you could get to these wild animals as long as you had the protection of the car.

The last activity was feeding a very hungry giraffe.  

Callie wanted to make sure he got every drop of food.

Our day at Lesedi Village and Croc City

Anyone want to try some yummy dried worms?

Not sure if Kelly and Tessa took to the worms, but they tried them.

These two guys were kind of fun and loved having their picture taken with the pretty girls.

Lesedi Cultural Village is a good place to start your visit to South Africa.

At Croc City Dan was enchanted by the huge tarantula.

It creeped me out and I couldn't even look down at my shirt.  Surprisingly the thing was very light.

Callie got to hold a baby crocodile.

While Tessa was holding the crocodile it actually bit Dan on the finger.

Now this creature, whatever he is, was pretty heavy.

Chuck held him like a baby.

The whole family was brave to hold this albino python.