Saturday December 17th Adelaide, AU Cleland Wildlife Park

Today started out as one of those days where you ask yourself-Am I doing something wrong? Cause clearly things are not working out the way I had planned.

I had asked Garrett to check for the bus times and stops for us to go to the wildlife park the day before. He assured me he would, but then didn't thinking he would be coming in to work in the morning for a few hours and would check then. BAD IDEA HUSBAND!!!
So we wake up that morning and G tells me his really great plan and I try not to get upset and he decides to check right then. Well as it turned out the bus was coming in 30 min and if we wernt on that bus we would have to rent a car or get there only a few hours before the park closed. I hadn't showered dressed or ANYTHING Garrett was ready so he got the kids ready and I somehow managed to shower, dry my hair, fix my hair, put on some make up, get dressed and run to the bus stop in 30 min. No one had had breakfast but we figured we would feed them at some point.

While standing at the bus stop I looked at the sky and said I don't think the weather is going to be very good. I think it is going to rain. Should we really be going? G says "ah it will be ok".
So we get on the bus for 30-45 min and stop to wait for the next bus to Cleland. There was a nice lady on the bus who heard Ezra complaining of an empty tummy and she told me there was a little place right there to pick up a bite to eat before the next bus. We ran over there and ordered some breakfast burritos and watched the mist coming down. The kids and I ran back to the bus stop because we were starting to get more wet and because it was cutting it close to the time of the next bus. Garrett waited for the food and was going to run to meet us. The bus showed up and no Garrett. I asked the driver if he was going to wait a few minutes because I was waiting on my husband. He said yes he had to wait for the bus from the city and told us to go ahead and get on even though G wasn't there and had our tickets.

The bus came from the city and still no Garrett. Then we waited a little longer and finally Garrett came running over the hill and across the freeway and onto the bus. I was starting to get really worried but the bus driver was really nice. We rode the next 15 min to the park and got off in the poring rain. We huddled under an awning and ate our breakfast and talked about what to do. We were stuck there until at least 1:30 when the next bus came but we weren't sure we should pay all that money for the park and then have it be raining the whole time. We weren't at all dressed for rain. In our hurry for the bus stop no one had so much as a sweater or jacket much less an umbrella which we don't even own.

We went in and purchased a family pass into the park for $85AUD, 5 ponchos for $20, 3 bags of animal food for $9, and the bus ticket for all of us for a day pass was $17.60. I was feeling a little humbug ish by this point and it only got worse when I realized all the animals were hiding under the bushes and trees to get out of the rain and were apparently well fed because when we approached them they didn't want our food in the slightest.

We were wet, cold, uncomfortable and I was grouchy but we did get to pet a koala and that improved things a little. The first part of the day was sort of miserable but later in the day things warmed up, the rain stopped, the wind died down a little, and the animals started coming out of hiding. We watched the dingos be fed, petted another koala, fed some kangaroos at last, petted the kangaroos (when Ethne wasn't scaring them off) and saw the Tasmanian devils be fed as well. We saw the cutest little bilby which might just be my new favorite animal. It was adorable and super friendly. If I had thought it was alowed I would have petted it. It wanted our attention and didn't act at all like a wild animal. It seemed tame and social. We saw jumping mice with hind legs and feet like a kangaroo and we decided from our experience at the park that everything in Australia must hop a little even if it doesn't full on jump. There were so many jumping/hopping animals there. Their rats were more like big cute rodents than our nasty USA rats which I hate. There were so many unique animals there as well and most you could walk right up and pet and/or feed (if they were hungry-which they werent).

I was really annoyed at one point with my kids although truth be told it was somewhat comical. We were in a big open field and there were kangaroos and joeys everywhere. We all got some food and tried to walk up and feed them. There were probably 30 in sight and every single one I approached Ezra, Enoch and/or Ethne would come running up behind me just as they were sniffing my hand and scare them away. I told the boys over and over-go get your own kangaroo and stop scaring off mine. Eoch listened and had great success feeding them while I tried one another another after another and had Ezra and Ethne ruin it each time. I finally told Ezra to go to a different set and I thought I had eluded Ethne but she came running as fast as she could yelling "Ana feed a tangaroo" and scared my newest encounter away. This went on for a long time and I would say Ethne you are scaring the kangaroos you have to be quiet and not yell and not run. I would hold her hand and do what I could but she just couldn't help herself. She started saying over and over as she walked with me "I not scare the tangaroos. I not scare dem mommy". Then at one point I was coaxing one and telling it how great the food was and Ethne pipes up "it's wrilly dood! I tied it-SEE" and she points to her mouth and shakes her head up and down trying to convince the kangaroo that she had tried it and it was "DOOD". I couldn't help but crack up. She was so funny.

Later that day at the dingo feeding she wasnt really interested in what the keeper had to say about the dingos. In true Ethne fashion she was more concerned with the people that were standing around watching. Ethne or "miss congeniality" as she is sometimes called, was talking people's ear off while they were trying to listen.  She met Bob, and she kept talking to Bob and calling out his name over and over to get his attention. Bob was an older gentleman and a little hard of hearing so she had to yell his name several times before he noticed she was talking to him. I had to keep asking her to be quiet as she kept asking loudly what's hims name? Of everybody she could see. She met Bob's wife and another lady who wanted her picture. She asked for everyone's names and gave them hers. She was far more interested in the people who came to watch the dingos being fed than she was in the dingos. She was telling everyone "I see DINGOS, I feed TANGAROOS," etc... She did as always succeed in wining all of their hearts and they had to take pictures and say good bye at parting.

After we had watched so many animal "encounters" where they fed the different animals Garrett told the boys the next one was going to have to be a Garrett encounter" where we watched Garrett eat. He was not happy when he realized that I had lost him his last chance at some lunch by insisting he wait until after the second koala petting. Whoops! He did have a muffin and 1/2 an apricot bar though so he was ok. Next we bought each of the kids a Christmas present of one stuffed animal each of their picking from the gift shop. Enoch got a really cute wombat, Ezra a koala, and Ethne a tangaroo.

We made it just a few minutes before the bus came and there was a lady smoking at the bus stop. I motioned for G to walk away with me so the kids weren't breathing in the smoke. Ezra said, as we walked away, "I can't get any fresh air because that lady is SMOKING!"then he walked far away, sat down and starting breathing really heavy like he was hyperventilating. He was all drama. LOL! Funny!

We made it home but were totally soaked by the time we got inside. It was pouring buckets when we got off the bus and we ran in it all the way to the apartment.

It was 5:30 by the time we got home and all the grocery stores were closed, so we had to buy a few things from a convenience store and G picked up enough Indian food for dinner and leftovers the next day. We didn't want to have to shop on Sunday so we just got what we had to have to make it through until Monday.

Crazy, by the skin of our teeth, sort of day but all in all a good day together as a family.