Lazy 5 Ranch

There's a place in Mooresville, NC (about an hour north of us) called Lazy 5 Ranch that we've heard about from several people and finally decided to visit today. It's an animal park where you can really get up close and personal with the animals! You can either take a horse-drawn wagon ride through the 3 1/2 mile trails, or you can drive your own car through like on safari. We chose the wagon ride--we thought it would be more fun, and didn't want Emily stuck in her carseat while we drove through.

I called ahead and made reservations for the wagon (recommended), and we got there a few minutes before they loaded us up. We boarded the wagons in the horse barn, where there was a 3-month old baby giraffe whose mother wouldn't nurse her--they were keeping her separate until she was big and healthy enough to join the other giraffes. Emily enjoyed petting her!

This was our tour guide through the ride--he explained the rules up front--how to feed the animals, and which ones not to feed (anything on two legs should eat out of the bucket, but anything on four legs could eat out of your hand).

Here's what the wagon looked like--this was the one behind us.

Interestingly, our guide told us the zebras were the only animals there who had teeth on the top and bottom, and they would bite, so we didn't stop to feed them. A car behind us was confronted by a zebra though--luckily, they didn't roll their windows down!

There was so much to take in--we thought Emily would be smiling and laughing the whole time, but she mostly maintained this look of pure fascination.

She wasn't intimidated though--when we stopped at the first group of animals, Emily jumped right in and grabbed some food.

She stuck her hand out and fed the llama,

but thought his tongue felt icky!

This was the wagon behind us, to give you an idea of how the animals surrounded us when we stopped.

The giraffes were really cool--we were able to get so close to them,

and they just leaned right over and helped themselves to our buckets of food.

Here are the last few animals we fed on the wagon.

This was a little buffalo--the animals would run toward us when the wagon stopped, ready for snack time!

When the wagon ride ended, there was an area where we could walk around and see more animals--Emily insisted on carrying the bucket of food by herself, and most of it ended up on the ground.

There were miniature donkeys, kangaroos, lots of birds and fish, and even camels!

She enjoyed the sheep and goats, because she can speak their language!

She really perfected her "Baa!" today.

It was a such a fun morning--we stopped for lunch on the way home, and by the time we got back in the car, Emily couldn't keep her eyes open.
She slept most of the way home, and then another 2 1/2 hours once we got back and I put her in the crib!