The word “safari” in Swahili (one of the National Languages in Kenya) means “long journey” and here in the US we think of visiting a park with big wild animals. This past weekend our kiddos in Kenya got the ultimate safari in every sense of the word. A luxury 5-star safari resort in Kenya’s famous Masai Mara National Reserve decided to give our kiddos an experience of a lifetime.All of our 16 kids and a few lucky staff members stayed three nights at the 5-Star Mara Timbo Resort—it is the type of place that I only dream about! They stayed in beautiful luxury tents, each with it’s own bathroom equipped with toilets, sinks, and showers. Each tent has a huge bathtub on a deck over-looking a family of hippos—the children went “swimming” in their tubs each night they were there. Each tent also had it’s own private butler to attend to their every need. After dining with the hippo family each night they snuggled up in big comfy beds and drifted off to sleep.
They called to update me every few hours about the fun they were having and the joy in their voices was priceless. It makes me smile just writing about it. On their game drives they saw a lion and lioness, hyenas, elephants, giraffes, and to quote our eldest boy Joreim “We saw animals that we had never even heard of!” He followed that with “The only problem is that we don’t want to leave.” I cannot express the joy that I felt each call that I got, those giggles just make my day.
People travel to Kenya from all over the world to see Masai Mara. It is really wonderful that our kids got to experience a world-renowned place within their own country. This was the first vacation that any of our children have ever been on. Our day field trips to surrounding sites were the first time that many of them had even left our village! Now they have all traveled outside of our province into a completely different area than what they are used to. The journey alone opened their eyes to so much. Then add to that an experience that most of us would only dream of—witnessing these magnificent animals in their natural habitat. It doesn’t get better than a family vacation with all your siblings, creating amazing memories that will last a lifetime.
We are so grateful to the Mara Timbo Resort, click below to watch this video of just how spectacular this place really is.