What 'cha doin'?? Oh, just riding on an elephant.

We were VERY excited (and me slightly nervous) about going on an Elephant Back Safari. We had a blast with Miss Ellie (Tyler and Spencer's elephant) and Makukkie (my elephant).

Tyler and Spencer getting on their elephant with their guide. I was already on mine.

Me and my guide on Makukkie. It was an amazing ride to have! These elephants are huge, and SO strong. Our elephant kept ripping branches from the trees we would pass to eat the leaves, and it was quite a sight to see.

We didn't see any other animals while on this safari, pretty much just a little elephant ride.

Beautiful eyelashes, huh? How would you like to curl those babies? :)

Spencer and Tyler on Miss Ellie. Spencer loved riding on the elephant, and by the end thought it was normal and an everyday type of thing. He kept calling me and showing me he was riding without hands.

Feeding the elephants.

At the end of our ride we had pictures taken with our elephants.

Umm, and those trunks are STRONG!! She kept bringing it back to find food, but I wouldn't have any in my hand, so I had to use one hand to keep the trunk at bay (away from my face) and the other trying to get more food.

Spencer loving life!

See me pushing the trunk away??

Tyler and Miss Ellie, Tyler really enjoyed this activity also.

"Honey, what 'cha doin'?" "Just sitting on the elephants leg while feeding her, it's all good."

Ever seen the inside of an elephants mouth???

Now you have! :)

Family picture with Miss Ellie.

Spencer again LOVIN' LIFE!

Their tricks. Look at that foot being held up, posing.

Chobe National Park - Game Drive

In the afternoon while in Chobe we went on our Game Drive into Chobe National Park in Botswana. It was a tad warm, but fun nonetheless.

Had to show what kind of vehicle we were driving in around Botswana.

Its one of those safari cars, and yes that would be no doors. We were going very fast, but we were safe. I promise.

Can you tell it's the dry season??

An impala.

Look at all the elephants?! It was crazy how many there were, and amazing too.

Sable. They are so hard to find, because they usually run off. This was far off, and they were already running away. These are Tyler's favorite type of antelope here. He thinks they look very regal. It's true, they do.

Elephant walking in-between cars. The animals at the park seem to be used to all the vehicles and boats, but as long as they don't get in their way. These animals are not tame at all, so if you got in their way or they felt intimidated, then they would come after you.

Red horned-bill bird. We saw these guys everywhere, funny looking things.

A Kudu.

This little baby elephant was trying to just do what everyone else was doing, getting all cooled off with the mud, but he didn't really know how to do it. It was so cute!

Came across this sad scene, a dead elephant. The guide said they saw some lions or leopards here earlier, but they couldn't tear through the hide. So most likely the guides would come back and cut the hide so then the other animals could eat. So sad, but it's the truth of what life is out here. I wouldn't have put this up, but thought you should see how real this all is.

Almost looks like a bald eagle, huh? Beautiful!

My favorite bird. It was so colorful!!!

Saying good-bye to all the elephants.

I'm still looking up the names of the birds, so I will update when I find them.

Chobe National Park- Boat Game Drive

This is part 1 of Chobe National Park. We were able to go over to Botswana for the day while in Victoria Falls. It was a long ride to the border, but after that things were great! Spencer watched Sonny With a Chance on my iPod while we were traveling. I was REALLY glad that I thought to bring it with us so he could watch it.

We arrived at a hotel there to start the boat cruise, and they had all of these small African animals around the open area. Here is Spencer riding on the rhino, he also made me take a picture of him getting eaten by the rhino.

Being Vanna White showing off the Baobob Tree.

Our first outing for the day was a boat game cruise. We saw lots of birds while on the boat cruise, it was really interesting to see so many varieties of birds, and so many in different vibrant colors (you'll see more in later posts).

Here we saw a Cape Buffalo. These things are HUGE!

I thought it was funny that he had a bird pecking in his ear, he kept flapping his ear to get it to move away.

I like this close up picture because you can see the horns so well, and also look at his teeth, they seem so small.

The next animal we saw was a big ol' crocodile. And of course our driver pulled right up to the edge of the grass so we were in dangers way.

Here we were sitting right in front of it. I was okay with this because I was in the back of the boat, and there were four others ahead of me that he could chew on. But also, by the looks of things, it looked like he just ate, his tummy is really big.

Do you see what I see?? Guess! Guess!!

Did you get it right? Right on the edge of the water all of those gray shapes are HIPPOS!!!! There were at least 30 of them, with babies in the middle. They put their heads on top of each other's bodies to be able to rest/sleep and breathe.

I thought this warthog looked funny being down on what would be his elbows. But because he has such a short neck he has to bend down like this and scoot along on his elbows eating.

Here is the HIGHLIGHT of our trip to Chobe...watching herds of elephants crossing the river!!! It was amazing to see so many elephants and watch how they did this.

I wasn't sure if this little baby would make it, and it's so cute!

But they all made it across. The little baby elephant swam hard and held it's little trunk up to breathe, plus mommy was right in front of him so he would no lose his way.

Don't want to get the tail wet! Kinda reminds me of "pinkies up!"

This poor elephant got tired of his trunk hanging around so he propped it up on his tusk.

More elephants crossing over.

Pretty close, huh?

Have you ever looked at the tail of an elephant?? It looks weird! Those hairs are so bristly and who knew they just came around the edge of the tail.

I caught a moment with the hippos mouth open.

We came across the croc at the end of the cruise, but it was unbelievable how much it blended in!

Then he spotted us!! Start the engine and GO!!!!

Then he disappeared so we had no idea where he went. This is why I will never put my finger over the edge of the boat or ever want to swim anywhere in these waters.

Halloween 2010

Had to put in our Halloween pictures. Even though it's only of Spencer before we went to the Halloween party here.

Spencer wanted to be Aang from Avatar the Last Airbender (no not Avatar the blue people). But all of the costumes were sold out, even at the beginning of September! So, we thought about it, and I asked him if he would want to go as a surfer so then he'd be able to wear his swimming suit and we could make a surfboard. Spencer was ALL for it!

He had a week off of school so after getting back from our vacation we started on painting his surfboard. Here is Spencer showing off his "Surfer Dude" look.

Yep we painted both sides of the surfboard. It was fun.

Showing the back of his shirt, or walking out the door to go to the party.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

African Sunsets

One thing that I simply LOVE about Africa are these AMAZING sunsets we get to see. They are beautiful, and I will miss them dearly when we leave. Last November when we took our trip to Lake Kariba, we saw some great sunsets as well.

These I took looking out of our window at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge. Beautiful, huh?