The Kenya experience

It took a good month but I'm almost finished with our safari pictures. We had a nice vacation. I would have never imaged visiting friends in Kenya, especially with 3 kids under the age of 5. It was well worth the long journey and the kids handled things well. I on the other hand have decided that jet lag with a new born and small children makes me go crazy. I'm just glad I've recovered and things have smoothed out a bit.  Kenya was very nice. The warm weather (that's important to those who live in Chengdu - we never see the sun even in the summer) was spectacular.
I was surprised how brave Tate was when we fed the giraffe's.  He let the giraffe kiss him. Sophia loved making flower garden's in our friends backyard (I hope she left some flowers on their plants, Sorry!). Since we've been home she begs me to get flowers ever time we pass a flower shop. We bought her pink roses for the first time the other day. She is such a girl.
We went on two separate safari drives. We went to Masai Mara as a family and Sweetwaters with our friends. All the pictures I've posted so far are from our Masai Mara trip. We drove about 5 hours outside of Nairobi on lots of bumpy roads, found our tented lodge, then went on several game drives in a 3 day span. I enjoyed being on the bumpy roads watching the wild life and seeing the beautiful scenery. It brought back some fun memories of hiking through the desert mountains with my grandpa looking for old Indian ruins. I enjoy the out doors.

The kids did well...when they were worn out they snuggled up on the seats and took naps. Sophia and Tate did really well waiting for potty breaks. At one point we had just pulled up close to the lions when Sophia announced that she needed to go potty. (Good timing, Sophia!) We pretty much found a spot on the side of the road for her to go...we just had to be sure we weren't close to any dangerous animals :-)
We got stuck on the road several times. At one point our driver pushed our car our of a rut but didn't calculate the down hill. We coasted down the road without a driver for a few feet until we crashed into the bank of the road. (that could have been bad). The road to our tent was covered in water at one point. We drove through and got stuck in the mud...luckily another jeep was with us especially since it was getting dark. They pulled us out of the mud.

One night in out tent we heard some branches crashing outside.  I thought it may be an African equivalent to a deer running through the bush...but Adam peaked out and there were 3 elephants in a marshy area just a stones throw away from out tent, drinking water and ripping branches off the trees. It was neat to watch and the elephants were huge. I wish we could have gotten a picture but I didn't want to disturb them with a flash or anything.
We spent our last few days in Kenya shopping. I enjoyed shopping especially since my friend did all the bartering for me. I wish I could have come home with a few more souvenirs but there is only so much you can do when you are toting around the young'ins.
Well...I'll do one more post with pictures of Sweetwaters soon.