We went on a safari in Nebraska!!

Nick had an odd situation...he actually had the whole weekend off from work! So, he and Kara wanted to do something with Rod and I to celebrate my birthday. Being "A Markin, " our usual routine for celebrating birthdays is to go out to eat! (Markin + eating= normal routine!) I decided that I wanted to throw a wrench into things and spit in the eye of tradition and do something totally different!! My first thought was, instead of going out to dinner, we would just go straight to the Dairy Queen and get a Blizzard! But, I knew that wouldn't take up an entire day, so I thought maybe we could go to the new exhibit at the zoo, or something along those lines. My suggestion was received with comments and looks that basically said, "Mom, are you nuts? You have Pulmonary Hypertension AND Addison's! You can't walk all over the zoo! You won't let us wheel you around in you a wheelchair if you get tired, so, it's not really going to be much of a fun celebration having you get really tired and very short of breath! Plus, when you get tired, you get cranky, and when you get cranky, the whole mood becomes ugly!!" (Isn't it amazing how I can imagine entire conversations without anyone uttering one word?) But, Nick and Kara had their own idea! I had completely forgot about the Wildlife Safari that is just a few miles outside of Omaha. It's called the "Simmons Wildlife Safari." It is a 440 acre sight in an area called the "Platte River hill country." There is a 4 mile road that you drive your own car on as you go around the park, coming face-to-face with a variety of animals including buffalo, deer, elk, antelope and a huge variety of birds!


Nick is showing me the snacks and wildlife books that he has packed for our safari! If you look hard you can also see Rod and Kara in the car.


There was an entire herd of these "horny little devils" just walking next to our car!


OK, all of you city people!! Do you know what this bird is???


Look at this poor, scrawny little Bambi! It's very obvious that this guy is not a
Markin!!


Here's another quiz for you city slickers...what are these birds? Here's a hint...they are NOT swans!!

I'm afraid that I'm going to ruin a possible trip for some of you that may want to go to the safari park by showing you everything. So, here's probably the coolest and the largest animal we saw in the park!



These guys were just a couple of feet away from the car!

There were many other animals, birds, turtles and such that we saw. But, although we didn't get a picture of it, we all agreed that Rod was mostly impressed with the....
PORT-A-POTTY! After he "visited" the "honey hotel" he commented to us that "Whoever designed those facilities were really using their heads! Everything is made from molded plastic, with great ventilation..." Yes, I did start to tune him out and am not really sure how his "praise to the potty" ended...sorry.



Although this is not a picture of the ACTUAL port-a-potty, I felt that having a visual as you reread Rod's "praise to the potty" would be helpful.

I had a fantastic 54th birthday! Thanks to all who sent beautiful flowers, cards, emails, phone calls and songs! I'm such a lucky, lucky woman. Thank you God for blessing me with another year and such amazing family and friends.

Thanks for checking in.
Thanks for reading.
Annette
The Old (and proud of it!) woman!