Happy New Year!

Journey into Africa - tram transports you to another place!

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This year we decided to do our New Year's Day hike at the Wild Animal Park. For the past 10 years we've started every year with a hike on January 1st. The whole family goes and we try to go somewhere less populated and more natural. We didn't find a hike we could take the dogs on that really excited us -- they were all 2 miles or less and a bit of a drive from home. It wasn't adding up and given the problems in the desert last week with the dogs, well... a more "urban" hike with just the four of us seemed like a better choice for today.

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native/baja gardens ~ fun experiments! (made snow and slime)
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kids having fun ~ painting projects (when dry, these boxes are filled with treats for the elephants, apparently they love this special thing)

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Didn't hear about the trip to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park? Miles from anywhere Bela (the Vizsla) stepped on a cactus. I believe it's a "jumping cholla" or a "teddy bear cholla". The mature, pinecone-like pieces drop off the main plant and litter the ground around the plant. These are basically pinecones with barbed needles. Bela stepped on one, yelped in pain and fell down onto more of them. They are extremely difficult and painful to remove once they've attached to you. Mike ended up having to hit them off of her with a stick while I held her still. Talk about a nightmare. Greta also stepped on one and the two dogs, Mike and myself all left the desert pretty shaken up and bleeding. We pulled "spines" (the needle-like pieces) from Bela's feet for days after the incident. Poor thing. We were so thankful everyone was okay and that the kids didn't have these things anywhere near them. The desert is so beautiful, but can also be very unfriendly.]