AWESOME!

Today we got to experience some Africa! It was awesome! We were in Nairobi and went to the Giraffe Center. We got to see, touch and feed giraffes. It was really neat. Deborah was the only one brave enough to get a giraffe kiss.

Marian had a great time feeding the giraffes and looking at them. They were tall!

Do you like my cool hat?! My mom got one for Marian, and one to take home for Joshua, but i have commandeered it for the trip. It may be a bit small, but it is a great hat!

I thought this sign was amusing, so I had to pose with it. I think I am so funny!

You could feed the giraffes from head high, or the ground. this was Marian on the ground with one of the big beasties.

After we hung out with the giraffes, Marian was thrilled to pet a tortoise. Then it was off to the Elephant Orphanage. It was amazing! They walked the baby elephants out to this mud hole and fed them their bottles. Then they talked about them while the cutie patootie babies played. they were beyond adorable. There were 2 groups we got to see. Each group spent about 30 minutes there. And there are a total of 17 orphans currently there. They youngest is 4 months old.

We were about 5 feet away- no zoom needed for this picture.

The elephants came came close enough to pet! Too close to actually get a good picture of Marian petting them. Their skin is tough and not as soft/supple as it looks!

They played in the water and were so cute. They gave themselves dust baths (and covered us in red dust as well), and they carefully climbed into the mud hole. We got to learn about the different babies and how they became orphans. There were 2 groups of babies- the under 2 year olds and over 2 year olds. The babies stay at the Orphanage till they are 3 and then go to a different place where they are introduced to the wild and other wild elephants, and are gradually integrated back to the wild, in a process that takes about 5 more years. (Was that a run-on sentence?!) It was so neat to see and learn about them. Baby elephants are so doggone cute! And they play just like little kids.

You can't tell, but I totally touched this warthog. It was really funny, because just a few minutes before, there was another warthog by a bush. I ran my hand down his back, which startled him, and he jerked his head up and got swapped by the branches, which really scared him and he made this dreadful noise that scared me to death. So I was a little afraid to try again!

Then we drove the 6 hours to Kisumu. I did not know Africa had such mountainous regions. And the traffic is astounding! Yikes! This picture doesn't show how green it was. SO beautiful!

While very tired, we are having a great time!