Lazy 5 Ranch

So for our last official day off of school on Friday we headed to the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville. It is funny though, that we finally made it there. We lived in Mooresville for the first 9 months we were here in NC and the Lazy 5 was on the route from where we lived to Niels' work. I would drive by the place at least twice a week and think "we need to go there it looks like fun". From the outside you can see horses and camels grazing. And across the street more draft horses on their land. So we finally went (and we don't live in Mooresville anymore) and boy am I glad we did! The boys had SO much fun and so did I!

Lazy 5 Ranch is a drive through wildlife park. You pay admission and then can buy buckets of pelleted feed to feed them as you drive through. We bought 2 of them at $3 each. It was well worth it. We were first greeted by an emu or two. They are kind of intimidating at first with their big beaks and eyes. They have no quams about sticking their whole head/neck into your car! You are allowed to drive with your windows down and the side doors open as well. The boys were in the front with me and so we just drove with the windows down. I think that was messy enough! There are pellets everywhere!

From Emus to Llamas, pigs, goats, deer, water buffalo, bison, zebras, long horned cattle. My gosh! They have SO many different animals to see. The only ones they said you couldn't feed are the Zebras (can be aggressive), Long horned cattle (um, can you say STUCK in your car window?) and the Bison (obviously WAY to big and unpredictable!)

Well we were behind a pickup truck that had a ton of kids in the back feeding the animals. We got to a herd of long horned cattle that the truck in front of us were feeding. They moved on because it was near the end of the drive because they were out of food. We pulled up to get a picture and one of the long horned cows headed straight towards my window looking for food. I snapped a quick picture before he got too close and then shut the window. (How do you tell a long horned cow not to stick it's head in your window, right?) Well this cow got mad that I didn't feed him! He proceeded to butt the van with his horns! Next thing I know he is at the back of the van still repeatedly banging the back hatch with his head and horns! (The reminder of the sign at the entrance, "Enter at your own Risk" comes flashing to mind!) Then I look back and he is trying to take a bite out of the rear windshield wiper! Too funny! Christian is laughing hysterically yelling at me to "drive faster" which I finally did and he didn't want to expend the energy to keep up!

We also brought a picnic lunch so after our drive through the park we sat near the boat shaped playground. The boys ate and then went off to play for almost an hour! Of course there were tons of kids there that they joined up with.

Lastly we went through the walk through area with more animals. Tons of peacocks in the trees, macaws, lemurs, kangaroos, duck, quail and some mighty big fish!

It was a fantastic visit although the boys and I both agree next time we need to take the horse drawn carriage ride through the park. Those horses (at least 8 teams of 2-3 when we were there) definitely have a job. Pulling large full wagons of people through not very flat ground!

This was one of my favorite llamas! Cute spotted one. Maybe I just have a soft spot for spotted animals (Tarzan) and ones that are supposed to be spotted (Duck my Appaloosa w/o spots)

Boys on the bridge checking out the fish and lemurs
Christian posing with the llama
Boys having fun with their bucket of animal feed
See the slideshow for more pics! So many I couldn't post all of them just on here!