{She Said} Getting Spit Upon By A Llama

While we were in Oklahoma, our group piled into the car and we went to Arbuckle Wilderness (a drive through safari park). You buy these cups of nasty pellets that are supposedly (and in my experience, the animals act as if it's true) delicious for the animals and then you drive through and see the animals in their "natural" habitat and feed them these pellets.

I'm really torn on this place. It was pretty fun and the kids definitely got a kick out of it. But, the animals act as if they are starved, other than these pellets, of food and they have almost formed a gang mentality where one animal will stand in the way of the car so that the others can harrass you for food. There were times where I thought a very aggressive donkey was threatening us in his own way.

 

Anyway, this brings me to one of the best decisions I have ever made. As we were getting in the car for the day, I normally sit in the back seat between Anna and Zach but Justin offered and after a short debate, I let him. This left Justin to managing the children with the (foul smelling) food pellets and more importantly the animals.

At one point, a very aggressive llama actually stuck his head so far into the car and over Zach that he was nose-to-nose with Justin. As Justin thought this was getting a little out of hand, he started insisting the llama get his head out of the car. The llama reared his head back and spat masticated food pellet all over Justin's face.

 I wish I could say I didn't laugh. I did. And from the very back of the car, Heather's wise words were, "my grandmother always said, stay away from the llamas... they spit."

During the rest of the drive, we were much more selective of who we opened the windows for. I spent much of the drive taking selfies with animals through the car windows.

The whole time, I told (a very un-amused) Matt that we were making memories. And we were. And I love these memories.