Bear World & Yellowstone

Thanks to our friends the Drapers, we got to take a little Family trip to Island Park, ID and visit Bear World and Yellowstone. It was a quick trip, but jam packed and tons of fun!

Bear World!

My little Bear, Owen!

I made Eli stop and take this picture because it looks like Bambi!

White Elk... so strange looking.

We we're right in front of the curator truck so all the bears were walking out to the road as we were pulling up because the curator truck is basically the "ice cream truck" for bears. It was awesome! What beautiful and BIG animals!

The baby bears! They were so cute wrestling with each other.

Pappa Bear & Baby Bear

Mama Bear & Baby Bear

We fed these really large fish.

Owen was pretty excited to see a real pig!

Eli made Elk noises and this ornery guy came clear from the opposite end of the place right over to him and was slamming his antlers into the fence. Eli is the "wild animal whisperer".

This goat cracked everyone up. He was no dummy... anytime someone went to buy food to feed the deer he would stand right there and nibble it out of the machine as they tried to take it out.

The hunter petting the deer?

This deer was sure curious, you can see in my face that I'm a little uneasy having him so close... but that didn't stop him from getting closer...

He nuzzled right up on Owen's ear!

We let Owen take the wheel as we coasted through Bear World. I'm pretty sure he's become accustomed to this and doesn't think he should ever have to sit in his car seat again.

YELLOWSTONE!

It was such a beautiful sunny day. As you can see by the way I and Owen are dressed we weren't expecting such nice weather.

Mo & Mackay with Me & Owen.

We hiked to Lower Falls - It was SOOO BEAUTIFUL! I love hiking! I just can't get enough of the gorgeous scenery we've been blessed with.

Owen's hair looks like a mad scientist because I put tons of sunscreen in it.

Poor little guy FINALLY crashed! He was trying to pull an "all-dayer".

So sweet.

We made a stop at Old Faithful, however we didn't stick around long enough to see it erupt. I got "Mother of the Year Award" for forgetting all of Owen's food. This was our last stop and he'd had enough. It was a bit of a rough day for him, thank goodness mommy comes equipped with milk machines!

We pulled over to see what everyone was looking at and at first it was just the black bear that you can see on the far right of the picture, but then Eli spotted all the wolves coming out of the tree line. We watched them walk over by the bear and try and steal his prey. The bear fought all of them off! It was unbelievable to see all this action. It was like a real live episode of National Geographic!

This elk has an antler stuck into the front of his head. Apparently he'd lost a fight earlier on.

One of the coolest parts about Yellowstone are the buffalo and how close they get to you.

Ruling the road!

Eli got out his bugle and this Bull Elk answered back every time. Again, it was so awesome to see all the animals we did in one day at the park! And it was Public Lands Day to boot so we didn't even have to pay to get in!

Scott & Brittney accompanied Owen in the backseat and held up Baby Signing Times for him to watch on the ride home. They were good sports, Owen had a complete melt down the last 15 minutes of the ride, they tried everything they could to make him happy - but he was finished!