Deer Park

On the day we were scheduled to go and visit the Grand Canyon, we got disturbing news. The president - as in THEE PRESIDENT - was going to also be visiting the Grand Canyon that day. We decided that is would be best to not go as it was going to be a media and security frenzy. Plus, Mark might have tried to talk health care with Obama.

We chose intead to go to Deer Park which is located right outside of Williams, AZ. It is a little park that is full of different kind of animals to look at and the best part is you get to feed the deer. This is not like Wallowa Lake where the wild deer look sick and will kick you for a Dorito. These deer were nice and the boys loved getting up close and personal.

Owen loved the deer spit on his hands and Caleb of course wiped it off quickly. Mark fed this buck while the boys told him it would look good mounted on our wall at home. Mark was proud and I was appalled. It's clearly not big enough to be mounted on our wall.

There were a lot of different kind of animals as you walked through the park. There were domestic animals like goats, pigs, birds that could cuss and bite your finger off, burros, llamas and dogs. Then there were animals like camels, caribou, wallabees, and monkeys.

I am a baby lover in any shape or form. This deer farm had baby deer, pigs and goats but the thing that really tugged at my heartstrings was the little baby wallabee. Here is doesn't look that small next to it's mama.

But when you put it next to the trainer, oh my goodness, it was so little and so cute and so precious that I devised a plan on the spot in order to take it home with me. I called out to it "Here baby wallabee, bee, bee. Here baby wallabee, bee, bee." I opened up my purse and threw my wallet and lip gloss at Mark who looked at me like I was crazy (I keep him entertained, I do). The precious little baby hopped closer to me and cocked it's little head to the side. It hopped a little closer. A little closer. And then the awful trainer must have gotten wind of my nefarious plan to steal the baby wallabee because she came and with one swoop picked it up and walked quickly away from the fence, throwing me a dirty look over her shoulder.

OK, that all really happened just in my head. I did call out to it but I stopped there. I didn't want to be a bad example for my children. But if they hadn't been there... Kye would have a new friend to play with.

For all you NAU alumni, I gave a shout-out as we drove by. This school was almost my alma mater but, as often happens, I met a boy and ended up going with him to Eastern Oregon University. I later married that boy so it was worth it, but in passing it, I still have to wonder at what adventures I would have had.