Bear World Trip-Part 5

The drive is so pretty from Idaho Falls to Jackson Hole. It is really worth seeing. Above is the sign at the top of the canyon before you descend into Jackson, Wyoming. Below is the view from the same spot.



The kids really liked the arches made from antlers in the park in Jackson Hole.

The whole family

A view of the whole arch

A few random pictures around Jackson Hole

Thanks so much Bill and Kim for such a great trip! We had a great time and made memories we will always remember!

Bear World Trip-Part 4

I know, we took a ton of pictures.
After we fed the big bears we watched the bear cubs for awhile again and then Jessica paid to be able to feed the cubs a bottle. It was pretty cool!

The kids were pretty tired and hungry at this point so we drove back to Idaho Falls and got some dinner. A little while later we took the kids swimming at the hotel pool. You would think they would have collapsed from exhaustion after all that excitement, but nope, they managed to stay awake to watch a movie in bed until Robby finally turned it off at 10:00. At this point Will was asleep, but the other two freaked out because it was too dark. What do you have to do to wear these kids out enough to go to sleep?

Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then went for a drive around the temple and saw the Falls. It was so beautiful! If only we had known that we were about a block away from this scenic area we could have gotten some pictures that weren't taken from a moving vehicle.

Bear World Trip-Part 3

After we saw the animals at the petting zoo we were able to get on a really tall truck and go out and feed the bears. It was so awesome! The kids loved it. We fed the deer and elk some green pellet things first and then we fed the bears doughnuts and bread. They would come out from wherever they were when they saw the truck coming and they would sit up and beg if you didn't throw something down to them right away. It was really cool.


Waiting on the truck to go feed the bears

Coming out of the woods to get some doughnuts

The lucky car behind the feeding truck got a really good show. Look at all those bears!

Bear World Trip-Part 2

After watching the bear cubs for a few minutes and taking our pictures behind the bear picture we headed over to the amusement rides for the kids. They were ecstatic that the rides were included in the admission price and they could ride all of them as many times as they wanted.

Riding the roller coaster

I think this is my favorite picture out of all of them. Can't you just feel his excitement? He was loving it!

The other two liked it too.

Jessica even took Jaden on his first ride. I don't think he knew that he was on a ride though.

Issac got into it after a minute.

This was Isaac's favorite ride

After the rides we went to the petting zoo.



This was the cutest little fawn.

The moose named Stilts. I guess it was in the petting zoo last year, but it got too big so it lives outside the fence to the petting zoo now. It was cool to see it up close though.

Will with another deer

I've never seen a peacock that looked quite like this

Kind of a weird looking pig

This was a really smart little goat. He was using his tongue to open the door to the machine that dispensed the food. He stood there for quite awhile trying to get some food out.

Bear World Trip

On Saturday morning we met up with Robby's parents, his sister Jessica and her baby, Jaden and we all traveled to Idaho Falls where we had some lunch and got checked into the hotel. Then we piled back into the car and drove about 20 minutes further north to Yellowstone's Bear World.


In the car on the way to Bear World

Excited to see some bears.

Excited to get out of the car.

Entering the park

We drove slowly through the park where you could see all the animals. There were elk, bison, deer, mountain goats, a moose, and wolves in addition to the Black bears and Grizzly bears. One of the first animals we saw was the white elk. It didn't look real because it didn't move at all as we were driving by.

The white elk

Some sort of deer

The bears were all over and the were very close to the car. It was really cool to see them and the kids loved trying to spot the next one or see what they were doing.

This one was just hanging out in the water

I think we woke this one up

After doing the loop in the car we parked and went through the gift shop to see what else there was to see.

A duck sitting on it's eggs at the entrance to the gift shop.

The kids were much more interested in seeing what there was to see and not so much in posing for a picture.

There was a separate area for the bear cubs that are under 1 year old. It was so fun to watch them chasing each other and wrestling. They were so cute!

Look at that face

Jaden on top, Will and Savannah in the middle, and Isaac on the bottom

The adults had to play too. Bill on top, Robby and Kim in the middle and me on the bottom. I didn't know I was supposed to wear my sunglasses for this picture.

First Day of School, Well, Sort Of . . .

Monday was the first day of 3rd grade for Savannah (How is she possibly in 3rd grade already?!) and the first day of Kindergarten for Will. They were both extremely excited and on Sunday they spent a long time together picking out what they would both wear and laying the outfits out on the floor. Then Savannah told Will all about the playground and assemblies and got him all ready and excited for what to expect at his new school. It was very cute.
Robby gave the kids each a blessing on Sunday night. This is one tradition that I am so glad to be able to pass on to my kids. I remember getting a blessing from my dad at the start of every school year and it was so important to me to know that my dad loved me and he wanted me to do my best and get everything out of the new school year that I could. He wanted me to know that Heavenly Father loved me too and that I could go to Him with any problems that I had. I'm so glad that Robby can do that for my kids as well. They were all so reverent during the blessings and they were listening carefully to what their dad said.
Monday morning came and I heard Will banging around in his room a little before 7:00. (We have threatened his life if he comes out of his room before 7:00) I knew right when the clock changed because I heard him say "7:00!" and hurry to wake up Savannah so they could start getting ready. He, of course, was already dressed so he waited impatiently for her to get dressed. By the time I got out of bed and put my robe on they were ready for their first day of school pictures. Luckily I persuaded them to have some breakfast and let me do Savannah's hair first.


Isaac wanted his backpack on for the picture too even though he wasn't starting school today.


Two VERY excited kids.

He's all ready!

We headed over to the school with all the rest of the people in this area and got Savannah settled in her new classroom then we headed to the gym for "Back to School Night" which was changed to "Back to school morning" and was pretty chaotic and long. No one really wants to sit and listen to the PTA talk for 20 minutes. Can't they make these things shorter? Will was pretty antsy by this point and I told him we were going to be able to go meet his teacher and see his classroom. What I didn't realize was that the teachers were all doing their back to school presentations for the parents except for the kindergarten. They were doing theirs at the regular class time, which for Will meant at 11:25. So we hurried to hear most of what Savannah's teacher had to say and we went home. Will was not very happy about how the morning of his first day of school had gone and he was pretty upset by the time we got home. I promised him that right after an early lunch we would be able to go back to the school and this time it would all be for him.
He was begging for lunch from about 9:50 until I finally fed him at 11:00 and then we FINALLY got to go meet his teacher and see his classroom. He was very excited and I think it's going to be a good year for him.

So we stayed for the teacher presentation and the boys got to play on the playground, but now he only gets to go back this week for his Kindergarten evaluation and then he'll really start school on Monday. Poor kid. I hope we make it that long. There's got to be a better way. Can't they do the testing BEFORE school starts so that they can start when all the rest of the kids do?

At least it's been an easier transition for Isaac. I have a feeling that he's going to have a hard time next week when Will is gone to school every afternoon.