Wildlife Ranch

On our second day in San Antonio, we started out the morning by visiting a wonderful tourist gem just north of the city-- the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. This site is a large drive-through animal sanctuary that they call an "African Safari-- Texas Style!" We loved our time here!

Notice that Jaden and Cody requested their jackets this morning. How pleasant it was to have morning weather that actually felt somewhat like fall! The clear skies and bright sunshine were ideal for our visit that day, though not that great for posing two 4-year-olds... :)

Once we drove past the entrance, we weren't allowed to get out of the car next to all the animals, although we were permitted to have our windows down. The park was divided into different sections based on the types of animals that could roam well together. The first area was the Tatonka Range. We purchased a guidebook to help us identify the animals (although some species were still somewhat difficult to pinpoint), so I'll attempt to label these guys correctly.

Deer

We also purchased two bags of animal food for Jaden and Cody to use during our drive through the ranch. At first, the boys (Cody especially) were dumping tons of food out of the car for each animal they saw, even though the animals showed no interest. We reminded Jaden and Cody that the food bags needed to last during the entire morning's drive. They ended up holding back so much that their bags were still nearly half full by the end! Estimating amounts is not a strength of a 4-year-old, apparently. :)

an Aoudad, relative of a goat

two battling Wildebeest

 Cody and Jaden were practically giddy with excitement at the animals' proximity to our van. It really was amazing! Most of the time, the wildlife ranch had strategically placed large food supplies for the animals right along the road to draw them out, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. :)

Longhorn

We were thankful that these animals were very tame!

American Bison

At one point, we were close enough to these deer to hear some of their grunting/croaking calls to one another. You'll hear on the video that Jaden and Cody have a different interpretation of what these animal sounds are! :)

Jaden and Cody loved leaning out the windows to not only feed the animals but to call out to them and beckon them to our car.

a Gemsbok, a member of the Oryx family

Kudu

The second section was called Tower Creek. We had heard stories about the feisty ostrich in this area! Thankfully, none of the ostrich attempted to approach our vehicle. They were too interested in their own food.

I think we determined the main differences between the ostrich and the rhea (other than the taller height for the ostrich) were a shorter neck and no distinct tail for the rhea. We passed by a good sized group of rhea. Some of the birds just stared at our van while others seemed quite interested in our food and came very close!

Thankfully, this ambitious ostrich didn't try to approach our car. When we heard playful screams (coming from this carful of college girls whom we later met) across the road, I had to snap a few shots. The ostrich's neck was literally all the way inside the car!

No problems identifying this guy! :)

Halfway through the drive, the ranch conveniently placed a rest area. It was perfect timing, as Jaden had said several minutes earlier that he really needed a bathroom! Walking around outside a bit also re-energized both boys for the rest of our journey.

The boys asked if they could climb the sign, so we let them jump off it a few times. I love these Daddy-son pictures-- the boys have complete faith that their Daddy will catch them!

Jaden and Daddy

Cody and Daddy

In the ranch's third section, our favorite encounter was with the zebras. These friendly little guys came right up and even licked our van at one point! It was hard to believe the warning that all these zebras may bite.

Yes, this zebra herd caused our car to be at a standstill for quite some time.

We didn't mind too much. We loved admiring these beautiful animals! Did you know that no two zebras have the same stripe pattern and that the patterns even differ from one side of the zebra's body to the other?

Just another ostrich crusin' down the road

Hey, Llama!

The last section of the ranch was a Walk-a-bout which included various primates...

...and a Lemur Island. You'll have to look closely to find these guys! :)

Thankfully, the ranch had a good setup for how to use any remaining animal food that visitors might have-- this petting barnyard full of goats. Jaden was immediately comfortable petting and feeding the goats right out of his hand.

It took Cody a little longer to warm up to the animals but he did eventually. 

Even Daddy made some new 4-legged friends.

By this point in our journey, Cody and Jaden were showing much more interest in climbing on the rocks than they were looking at the animals, so we decided that our visit was done. :)

What a fun place to visit! Thanks, Kim, for the great recommendation!

SeaWorld San Antonio

In mid-October, our family took a getaway weekend to San Antonio. What a fun, family-friendly city to visit! We loved our two days there and were spoiled by perfect weather and hardly any crowds. Our first day, Friday, we spent at SeaWorld. I had found online how to get free tickets for preschoolers, so it was a perfect year for our family to go. Jaden and Cody surprised us by lasting nearly 8 hours at the park. When we arrived just after 10:00, the temperatures were still cool enough that Jaden and Cody requested long sleeved shirts AND pants. (It sure didn't take them long after moving here to get acclimated to the Texas weather!)

During the entire month of October, SeaWorld had various fall/Halloween related decorations and activities throughout the park. They also had 10 candy stations set up in different gift shops where kids could trick-or-treat for candy. Not surprisingly, Cody and Jaden were quite thrilled about this! Their favorite task during the day was finding the candy station icons on the park map and directing us towards "the closest candy."

One of the Halloween activities we found was this hay maze. Jaden and Cody went through the path two or three times in a row and then a couple times more later in the afternoon. Gotta love having no lines!

Close to the park entrance is a large Kid Zone called the Sesame Street Bay of Play filled with play equipment, splash pads, and multiple kid rides. We weren't intending on visiting this section of the park first, but we had roughly a half hour to waste while waiting for a nearby show to begin. So, we spent some time playing. Daddy was the designated ride chaperone since pregnant Mommy was advised against going.

This particular ride was quite slow and took forever to load the riders on and off, so while the boys enjoyed it well enough, they didn't ask to ride it again.

This play zone contained some of the longest tunnels the boys have ever crawled through.

Notice the absence of any other kids around the boys? The crowds did pick up a little throughout the day, but the majority of the day we almost felt like we had the park to ourselves!

The first show we attended was called Ocean Discovery, featuring beluga whales (what beautiful animals!) and dolphins. This show was so impressive and was easily our family's favorite for the day.

The beluga whales came out first and did laps around the Beluga Stadium.

The most amazing part was watching the trainers interact with these whales. The belugas were very intelligent and had no qualms about direct human interaction.

I think the beluga pictured here was on his back waving a fin at the audience.

How amazing is this!? Two of the trainers actually got in the water with the belugas and had a whole swimming routine together. We were in awe as we watched the belugas push the two women through the water and how they even allowed the trainers to ride on their backs. So impressive!

The dolphins wowed everyone, too, with their fast swimming and their coordinated leaps through the air. What a great show!

After the show was done, the boys rode the carousel (which they initially insisted on riding all by themselves but then Jaden changed his mind too late and ended up in tears for the entire ride... lesson learned, I hope). We determined that everyone was hungry so we took a lunch break.

Shortly after lunch, we attended a sea lion show called Sea Lion High.

The entire show was supposed to be a comedic act between the trainers who posed as various high school characters (a jock, a nerd, a teacher) and two sea lions named Clyde and Seamore who were supposed to be students struggling to earn their high school diploma.

Personally, I preferred the shows that were more educational and focused more on the animals' behaviors, but Jaden and Cody seemed to appreciate the unique presentation and even chuckled a bit at the actors' random antics.

Some of the park's Halloween decor seemed a little creepy for young kids but Cody and Jaden weren't turned off at all by these talking/singing pirate skeletons.

Next we visited the Penguin Encounter where we saw a whole slew of penguins and puffins. We laughed at the penguins that seemed stuck in one position with their wings sticking straight out.

While at the Shamu Theater we learned that SeaWorld (due to intense pressure from many animal rights' groups and in response to some activist groups even boycotting their park) decided in March that they would no longer breed their orcas. The orcas will likely be around for many years to come, but it's uncertain how much longer the killer whale shows will continue. So, we were thankful that our family had the opportunity to see these large and amazing animals.

Jaden and Cody  (and Mommy and Daddy too!) particularly loved watching the animals' out-of-the-water jumps and flips.

This mini roller coaster, the Shamu Express, was one of the boys' high points of the day. Because the park wasn't very busy, Jaden and Cody could rush off the ride and wait only one more ride-length before getting back on again. We returned to this roller coaster multiple times during the day, and at one point the boys probably rode it 4 or 5 times in a row. Definitely a favorite. :)

The last show that we attended was called Pets Ahoy Halloween. I'm not exactly sure why this show was put on at an aquatic park since the show involved just dogs, cats, birds, and even a pig. Nevertheless, the tricks that these animals could do were quite entertaining, so it was a fun performance. We weren't allowed to take pics during the show, so here's the only shot I got of Cody and Jaden waiting in the audience.

The last part of our day included a visit to Discovery Point which is actually a section that guests can visit for free since it's right outside of SeaWorld's gates. Jaden and Cody excitedly found two more trick-or-treat stations and then visited the dolphin lagoon where we could observe the dolphins from vantage points both above and below the water's surface.

Last of all, we went into the Explorer's Reef (also in Discovery Point) where we saw a whole tank of sharks. Cody and Jaden were especially curious as to why the sharks were swimming so slowly.

Overall, we felt that Cody and Jaden were at a perfect age for just beginning to appreciate a park like this one. We were happy that the boys were content to stay at the park as long as they did so that we could explore so much of SeaWorld. We loved our up-close encounter with so many marine animals and were especially thankful for our beautiful day!