Circle G Ranch

A year ago (I think) my sister posted facebook pictures of this place in Strawberry Plains she and her family visited called The Circle G Ranch. Basically you got up close and personal with the some animals, and feed them and she was on this huge jeep looking vehicle. The animals are fenced in, but roam free as they choose. A few months later I saw a groupon for it and bought one. Then a friend of mine, went to the same place-and drove through in her minivan. I laughed so hard at her pictures I was crying. Animals faces/heads/most of their bodies were in her car as her family was feeding them-her two year old was freaking out, etc. And I knew we must go, and then it was winter, and then my groupon was about to expire-so I called one of my brave adventurous friends and she and her sweet daughter (who also happened to be a buddy of Reese's) came along too.  Let me apologize ahead of time for the lack of pictures, because-well, it's hard to drive, comfort your children, not run over animals, and take pictures all at once-all the while animals faces are inches from yours wanting a snack.

It started out innocent enough-we got our little buckets of food and were given the instructions-"stay in your vehicle at all times, if the animals get too intense-throw the food away from your car, don't hand feed certain ones with large teeth, drive really slow, etc. We nodded and smiled-and off we went.

It started out innocently enough, saw different species of deer who ran along side our car, pigs looking like there were about to pop because they were so pregnant their bellies literally dragged the ground...

We went on and didn't see many animals, and then came along this black llama. Llamas.....cute, not aggressive-but very persistant/stalker-ish. I am not afraid of llamas, however, it is a bit intense when their faces are in your car, inches from yours and you have to roll up your windows a bit because of "personal spaces issues" and then they proceed with face in your window as the run along side you at the 3 miles an hour speed limit. I was laughing and screaming at my friend Alex to throw the food!! So I am driving, laughing and dodging these HUGE pellets of food that Alex was throwing across my face and out the window to get the llama away. (Please note that I am sacrificing my personal humiliation of this 8-chinned-because-of-nervous-laughing picture so that the story will make sense).

We think we are clear of the llama and go down and hill and see this......

It was as if all the animals stopped in their tracks as our vehicle started toward them. They only stopped for a sec and started charging my car! We were surrounded! Alex started taking video of "when animals attack", we were laughing and screaming and trying to control windows, she was aiming her phone at every window. Did I mention that these animals are wickedly smart? And that one animal with stand in front of your car so you can't go forward while the others are sticking their heads in your windows? Alex and I are hysterically laughing, Reese is throwing food and hitting the animals in the face (not on purpose mind you, just because he's got a good arm and their heads were inside his window) Alex's daughter was screaming "I don't like this anymore!!" and Abram was screaming, "They love us Mom! They really love us!"  These were the only pictures I took because of much multi tasking that was going on at the moment....

......unfortunately, we lost the video. This was a very sad moment-because not only would it have been hilarious, I feel sure we could have entered it in any contest and won a trip to Disney or something.

Abram LOVES him some zebras and was bummed he didn't get to pet them during the "safari" so we took the rest of our food to the entrance of the "drive thru" and it was perfect timing because a couple of the zebras (including a baby) came along about that time and Abram and Reese got to feed them, while Alex and her daughter were being stalked by the super preggo piggies.

And a random emu....these birds freak me out, I'm not going to lie.

Afterwards we went to the "petting zoo" area and Abram had a little breakdown over the 6 roosters all crowing (he is not a fan of roosters, or they loud sounds they make that echo in a barn). We saw sheep, lambs, piglets, wallabies, and the biggest camels I have seen in my life. So my oldest that had just been crying over a roosters crow-says to me "Can I pet a camel?" I said "Sure, but we don't have any food left. You can see if it will just let you pet him." After a couple tries, you better believe that camel kept on until Abram pet him. It was so sweet and he was so brave and excited.

It was a perfect day and I had a headache from laughing so hard. We will definitely be making this trip again.