Family Traditions!

Three years running we visited Yellowstone Bear World in Idaho on closing weekend. What a wonderful tradition it has been. Who knew that a spur of the moment day trip would turn into something that we look forward to every year now. This year did not lack in excitement. Due to cold weather, the animals were out moving more than they have in years past that we have been there. The crowds were at minimum. We were the first to enter the park, and the only patrons there for the first hour. Every car that entered was eligible to enter one person from their group into a drawing to feed the baby bear cubs. Yep, Karadie won (really, there were only 2 people that had entered so they let both of them feed the cubs). Karadie had so much fun! Typically we love watching the cubs for hours, but it was a bit chilly, so we watched them in short glimpses, went to the gift shop to warm up, and back to the cubs for a bit more viewing. They were very active and as always, highly entertaining to watch. I pointed out to Cameron the cub he was to get me for Christmas, a darling little chocolate colored girl. I hope I'm not disappointed.

The petting zoo was our next stop. Stiltz the moose is growing quickly. He was found in the wild 4 years ago, shortly after he was born. His mother had died, so Bear World rescued him and adopted him into their family. He still loves to push his antlers against the fence, snuggle in real close and let you pet him. We love spending time with him and felt so lucky to have seen him first thing yesterday morning. Shortly after petting him he moved to a part of the park where he was not accessible for the remainder of the day. The white tail and mule deer in the petting zoo fought for our attention too. Kensington especially loved sharing food with all of them. One young buck wasn't so hip on the sharing idea, so he nipped at Kensington's leg letting her know he wanted more. He also didn't like me standing near Kens, so he stepped on my foot and gave my fanny a good head butt to move me away (don't be alarmed, no humans were hurt in the creation of this story).

This was our first year seeing Dylan the gray wolf. He's always been hiding when we've been there in the past. Sadly, Dylan is not expected to make it through the winter. He is very old and has athritis in his hind legs really bad. It broke our heart watching him try to keep up with Stormy the arctic wolf. They are beautiful animals and so amazing to watch run around the park.

Of course the JOY of the trip are the BEARS!!! We drove for hours around the park. Again, the cold seemed to make them more active. The bears were out walking around, playing with each other, some even fought a time or two. That is an amazing sight watching them get angry with each other. I can see why you don't want to cross one of these animals in the wild. It wouldn't take much for them to show you who's boss. The highlight of the trip for me was having one particular large black bear eat an oreo off of the running board of the truck on Cameron's side. (I'm not sure how the oreo got there. Pretty sure it was accidentally on purpose). Of course we had to quickly drive through again to see if luck would repeat itself. Oops, this time I accidentally spilled my rootbear on the running board, door, and tailgate of the truck. It was amazing to me that the same black bear actually recongized our truck and came running. Luck was with us. This very large bear quickly ate the cookie and continued walking along side of the truck as we drove slowly, licking the rootbear off the running board. Cameron sped up a bit so that the bear would stop licking and after the bear backed off Cameron slowed down again. Oh, no. We didn't count on the bear picking up his pace and trying to climb into the back of the truck. Feeling the weight of the bear pull the back of the truck down got all of our hearts pumping a bit faster. No time for a picture...the girls were screaming, I was laughing and Cameron was making some sort of an evil cackle as he gently pushed on the gas. You would think the bear would back down, but no. He decided to do a circus dance and continued to walk on his hind legs still hanging onto the back of the truck. With a little more speed the bear dropped down to all fours again. The park gates were about to shut for the night, but we wanted one more quick go around. No way this bear would spot us again, right? Hmm, smart little creatures. Not paying much attention and driving rather slow, we felt the weight of something large move the back of the truck again. It was no surprise to find the same bear trying to make an escape in our truck. We were smarter this time and drove fast enough that he was forced to back away. Still, no pictures, but was it EVER an adventure we're not likely to forget!