I’ve mentioned before how we decided for Christmas this past year to give the kids an experience rather than a bunch of gifts…because ya’ll, our house is covered in stuff.

Well, the experience included a trip to a home school convention in Cincinnati to hear and hopefully meet our favorite author and singer, Andrew Peterson, a trip to the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter.  We made our trek in April.

About a month before the trip, we had a family movie night and stumbled upon a cute little movie on Pureflix called Little Ponderosa Zoo.  We soon learned that the Little Ponderosa Zoo wasn’t just a movie but an actual place and it happened to be “pretty close” to our route to Cincinnati.  Since I needed to get out every two hours, we decided to include this little zoo in our trip.

Ya’ll, it was the best decision.  A perfect break during a long road trip and an opportunity to see some pretty neat animals up close and personal…and feed them! It’s a wildlife sanctuary and most of the exotic animals were “pets” before the owners realized they were actually real wild animals.

If you are ever in the middle of Nowhere Tennessee and want to get out of the car and rest for a couple of hours.  Little Ponderoas Zoo is THE place to go!

Rabbits!  Ready and willing to be loved on.

We walked out of the barn and Emmie saw all the goats.  She ran up to them and began proclaiming, “I wuv you!  And I wuv you!  And I wuv you!”  She was in heaven.

Liam and Silas were super excited to feed the ponies.

We fed kangaroos too!

My super excited treat was seeing a little rescued monkey as everyone was leaving.  He was very curious about all of us and played peek-a-boo with me, running away from me and then eventually getting a little closer as I continued to talk to him.  And then, oh my, then he looked at me and gave the biggest grin.  I flipped out.  And no one was there to witness it or get it on camera!    Most of the monkeys are generally from abusive or neglected situations.  This one, was just absolutely adorable!