South Africa

Greg and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on July 9, 2014 and we had been talking about taking a special trip to celebrate.  It didn't happen that summer because we weren't sure if/when we were going to be moving back to the US.  It did happen this past summer and it was AMAZING!

Greg had been to South Africa on a business trip-Fluor has an office in Johannesburg and some of the guys there took him to a game ranch over the weekend he was there.  I was VERY jealous of the pictures he brought back.  We had a terrific time-enjoying where we were and having fun being just the two of us!  If you don't like pictures of animals, don't bother with this post any further!  They were just so beautiful and so close, I couldn't stop taking pictures of them!

but first a few wedding pictures to make us laugh!

 Left to right below-Greg's grandparents-Grandaddy and Granny Joan Cook, cousin Helen and her husband Don, Aunt Becky, Greg's sister Emily-who was 13 when we got married, Greg's sister Jodi-a bridesmaid in a green dress, Greg's parents-Bev & Larry, Aunt Gretchen & Uncle Russ, cousin Travis who is now in his 20s, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Nancy, and Grandaddy Elliott

 Flowers extended family below-left to right-Gran (Dad's mom) that I grew up next door to, Janet and James, Aunt Anita and Uncle Benny (Mom's brother standing next to me), Greg, Mom and Dad, William and David, and Grandmommy (Mom's mom)-it is funny to me especially to look at my 4 cousins in this picture because they are all grown ups now too and 3 of the 4 of them are married now with children of their own!

 Mom, Dad, and I with my 2 grandmothers-was laughing very recently with some girlfriends about big poofy sleeves and head pieces that was the in thing then!

 Our wedding party friends, left to right Greg's sister Jodi, Katherine, Dara, Katy, Kim, Larry, Stan, Steven, Andy, Eric, Ken, and Keith and our sweet little flower girls Diana and Courtney who are now married and each have a baby of their own

Us at a dressy event in Manila!

Now for the South Africa and the animals

the airport in Johannesburg-from our hotel right next door

 funny to see things that look just like home

At the Lion Park, Greg did a great job driving on the wrong side of the road over there but made the guy at the lion park gate entrance laugh at us and ask if we were Americans when he nearly drove up to the exit side of the gate to enter!

 We got to see and feed this giraffe!

 these ostriches were hungry and rude-they pecked the bag of food right out of Greg's hand and he had to be very careful getting it back from them!

 I really didn't want to take my eyes off them when I was standing this close!

 We got to pet lion cubs!  They were SO cute!  Greg said that we really hit the park right-it was early morning and very few people were there so they let us stay in the pen areas with the cubs a lot longer than he did when he was here before!

 They were adorable but even this little have sharp claws and teeth-one scratched my arm and tried to bite my pants leg!

 meerkats!

 We were hoping this lady who worked in the park was bringing us our lion cub to take home with us but she said no-sad!

 There were zebras there too

 the giraffe we had fed earlier

 There were 3 enclosures you could drive through to view lions-there was this funny sign telling you to Keep your windows closed at all times!  They even put tape over our windows before he opened the gate to let our car in-we were surprised that there were so many lions waiting right there at the gates but none tried to get out when he opened it.  Greg had been here before too and wanted me to see it because lions are very hard to see in the wild-even at the game reserve park.

 they are amazingly beautiful animals-no wonder CS Lewis made Aslan stand for Jesus in the Narnia books!

 Greg sent this picture to the kids and it took them a while to realize what was funny about it-I was on the wrong side of the car!

 We got to see some lions running!

 just in front of the entrance to the Lion Park

 we saw several KFCs in South Africa!

 This was driving from the Lion Park to Pilanesburg Game Reserve-a beautiful country!

 We saw lots of animals on the side of the road

 our first room is below-we just changed because the lodge where Greg stayed before was full when we first arrived.

 they had an outdoor shower but it was a little too cool for that!  It was fun being cold there when it was SO hot here in July!

 Below are impalas-the dark lines on their behinds sort of look like the letter M for McDonalds and are the snacks of South Africa.

 our guide told us these rhinos were play fighting

 Once, I believe it was this one-an elephant walked SO close to the back of our jeep that I could have reached out and touched it-I wanted to really badly but knew better!  Greg teases me all the time about trying to touch fish when we scuba dive, but a fish wouldn't turn our boat upside down and I knew the elephant could have easily done that to our jeep if he had wanted.  Our guide was so wonderful and patient and would just let us sit for as long as we wanted watching the animals-truly amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!

 We had to take a picture of the turtle for Ryan-they are his favorite animals!

 a car wash tent that we saw when out driving

 an outside dining area where we ate lunch-there was a huge animal watering hole nearby

 our 2nd room-above, the outside of our little house-below

 the Jeeps we rode in for the game drives

 Beautiful sunsets!

 The food was delicious and often looked like it was from the Food Network channel-this was my salad one night.  One night ostrich steak was on the menu.  Greg was brave and ordered that-I chose the tamer sounding fish that night but regretted my choice when I tasted Greg's-it was delicious and I would NEVER have guessed it was ostrich if no one had told me!

 Signs like this made us laugh!