Our son Conner married Taylor in June 2018. I was able to go back to Utah for the wedding, but President Collings has never met her. One day while having a conversation with them, they mentioned how much Taylor would love to come to Uganda and see some of the African wildlife. We were so excited that they were able to come visit before we went back to the United States. It was a very quick trip because they both are working full time, and it's a very busy time of year for them, but we fit as much into the week as we could with them.
We usually have a Senior Couples Retreat every year as well. We are at an interesting point in our mission, because we literally have one senior couple, The Maughans. So we decided that we would combine this visit from Conner and Taylor, and our Senior Retreat and have all six of us go see the Gorillas.
We stayed at the Nkuringo Lodge, and tracked the Xmas Gorilla Family. It was an absolutely beautiful place! The lodge was nice, the food was good, and we really enjoyed our time together.
The Xmas Group got it's name because they say the Silverback of the group was born on Christmas day. This was one of the most intense hikes I have ever been on. It was 2 1/2 miles straight down hill. I can't complain about it being down hill, but I ended up having a toenail go black because of the constant pounding of my toe against the tip of my shoe. The other problem with going 2 1/2 miles down hill is that you have to get back. We hiked straight up the hill to get back to the lodge after seeing the Gorillas. But it was TOTALLY worth it!
We were very close to the gorillas. It's a little bit intimidating to look through the jungle and have this giant Silverback looking right at you.
It was an exhausting, AMAZING day.
After our experience with the Gorillas, we parted ways with the Maughans. They have been serving in Rwanda, so they drove back to Kigali, while we took Conner and Taylor to Queen Elizabeth National Game Park. All I can say is Conner is a lucky charm. Every time we go with him ANYWHERE, he spots the most amazing animals!
We arrived at our lodging in the afternoon, and talked about going on a game drive the next morning. When we asked them what animals they wanted to see they said the would really like to see elephants and lions. Our rooms overlooked the water, and there are always hippos in the water and from time to time you will see kobs and water bucks come down to drink. Well, we walked out of our rooms the very first evening and saw elephants at the water. Not just a few elephants, but MANY! I think we guessed there were at least 30 elephants right in front of our lodge just drinking and playing in the water. It was such an incredible sight!
The next day we went on our game drive. Now that we had seen so many elephants, the animal of the day was lions. Not only did Conner and Taylor want to see lions, but a male lion with a mane. We have been in Uganda for 2 1/2 years and have never seen a lion with a mane. I just told them that if we saw lions at all we would be lucky. Well, not only did we see lions, AND a lion with a mane, but we saw 11 lions!
These lions had a kill that they were all feasting on.
This big guy didn't have a care in the world. He was just relaxing in the sun.
There were other animals as well.
There were Kobs
Cape Buffalo
And Taylor got to see more elephants!
On their final day, Conner and Taylor went to the behind the scenes tour of the Entebbe Zoo. We had such an amazing time with them, and it was so nice for Steve to get to really meet and spend time with Taylor. We are so blessed to have her in this family. She is a perfect fit! We said this trip was Taylor made for her. It was perfect!!
Looking forward to seeing them in July!
