I was nearly mauled by a lion, and other tales from the weekend...

Ok, I have a ton ton ton to put on here but time has been limited this weekend. I solemnly swear to try my best to update several times this week.

So, about the lion...we took a weekend trip to Cincinnati this weekend to Kings Island and the zoo. Great fun, very tiring with two two year olds. But we had some major highlights, some of which were caught on camera, some were not due to Daddy’s negligence of leaving the camera at the hotel after naptime. But with the assistance of my father’s scanner I’ll try to put some of the $30 KI pictures on here.

Ok, so I digress a lot, but here is the lion story quickly...we go to the zoo on Sunday, and are walking through the lion exhibit. Now, I’m no PETA member, but this zoo was a bit bothersome to me in some aspects, as in the animals didn’t seem to have enough area to run in for some exhibits. But I know zoos do really great work breeding and protecting endangered animals, etc. and I can’t see behind the exhibits to see how much extra space there is. Anywho, we’re at the lion exhibit, which isn’t all that big, and has no glass or fence enclosure, but no way I assume for the lions to get out. Well, the Cincy zoo is literally in the middle of the city, and this exhibit has trees behind it, but then there’s just the road. As we’re looking at the two male allegedly white lions (I say allegedly cause they were TAN not white), a motorcycle that’s really loud goes by and one lion stands up and looks our way (the road was behind us). They’re on these piers that have several step downs, and every step down gets closer to the bridge where we are, but the bottom ones are well below us. Well, he steps down to one that is pretty much directly across from us, but probably 50 feet away. As he’s looking towards us and the other few people who were there at the time, this dorky woman and her 12 year old boy start taking flash photos repeatedly of Mr. Lion. As Dork Lady does this, Mr. Lion proceeds to get VERY angry and starts roaring. Now, at this time, I’m about to wet my pants because for those of you who have never heard a lion roar 50 feet from you with NOTHING between you, it is terrifying. But does Dork Lady stop? NOOOO, she keeps on flashing away, as Mr. Lion comes closer and closer and keeps climbing down the piers til he’s closer to us, but below us. At that point, I got the kids and got the H-e- double hockey sticks OUT of there. We could still hear that lion roaring like 3 exhibits down.

Now, there are a few things you should know before going to the zoo, in my opinion.

1. Don’t tick off the animals.
2. Don’t tick off the animals particularly who can kill you.
3. If something you are doing in fact ticks off the animals, stop.

Since I didn’t read about any maulings yesterday, I’m assuming she’s alive. But sometimes the gene pool just needs cleaned out, right?

Oh, and if you see a pigtailed two year old attempting to hitchhike back to Cincy, it's Emma. Please bring her back home, she just wants to move to KI cause I told her that is where Dora lives and she can't go live with Dora or we'd miss her.

More later, but here are some preview quotes from the weekend:

Ethan: "I love you goats!"

Mommy: "Get the bird out of my hair!"

Emma: "Monsters mommy, monsters! Monsters have scary red eyes! Bun bun scare away monsters?" (bad mommy moment #82394834 here)

Daddy: "The G&^d&** bird just bit my neck!"