16 October 2015
It took a while for us to wind down that night but eventually we were all in bed, Kate and I in one bed, Daniel and Mom in the other. I was worried that Mom wouldn't get much sleep because Daniel was a mover and a shaker while he slept. Turns out that I should have been more worried about Kate. She was all over the place, including on top of me, throughout the night.
I was dosing off while feeding Oliver the next morning and didn't watch the clock. It was after 8 when we got into the breakfast room for a yummy start to the day. Everyone else was at least dressed if not packed up. So after eating we rushed back to the room to get ready for "BEAR WORLD!" I was a little frazzled trying to get everything done, but the family was so patient and helpful. Tufa and Ann-Marie showed up at the door to help carry stuff out to the car. Caroline and her family waited in the parking lot until we were ready, and Brett's family made sure we knew where we were going just in case we got separated on the way.
We made it!
So the first thing you do after you pay is take a drive through the bear country portion of the park. There were not just bears, we say mountain goats, dear, bison (not buffalo), wolves, geese. It was kinda crazy to see them so close. Kate and Daniel were straining to see all the animals, so Mom (who was sitting in the middle seats next to Oliver) got them out of their seats so the could look out the windows and move from one side of the car to the other. Their little pointer fingers got a real work out as the exclaimed, "LOOK!" dozens of times. Some of the pictures aren't very good because we had to leave the windows up while we drove through (some pictures look quite clear because I may have been overcome with wanting a few clear pictures so I rolled down my window a titch).
There were way more bears than I was expecting to see. I thought there would be 6-8, but there were more than 60 in the park. They were wondering all over the place. There are little "caves" like the one in this picture all over as well. We learned later that they have enough of these for each bear to have one to hibernate, but some bears like to have a buddy to snuggle with while hibernating. All of the bears are brown bears even though they have different colors of fur. It was such a fun drive! We could have gone through several more times, but we decided to sign up for the "Feed the Bears" tour where you get on one of their trucks with high walls. I'll get to that later.
After driving through the bear portion we headed to this little area where there are several rides. The rides were all free and for a while it was basically our group and a few other kids. This place really was made for kids about 2 - 10, and for kind cousins who are older than that but willing to help out with the Littles in the group. Oh, and for 72 year old Grandma's who are just plain fun to have at times like this. I'm not sure what this ride is... alien blueberries (see the little antennae on the little guys sitting on the branches?) Perhaps eggs in a nest? I don't know, but it was where we started. Kate had no fear and ran to the line with Sadie, Claire, and Juliet.
Daniel, on the other hand, was not in his normal cheerful mood. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep or what, but he was having a rough time. I tried to comfort him and convince him to get on the ride, but he only wanted Grandma. It didn't take too much persuading for Grandma to be willing to get on the ride. Her facial expression changed and she tried to squeeze into the seat that was clearly made for a smaller okole. She persevered and organized the kids on the ride to cheer and wave their hands in the air.
I thought this picture was especially cute of Daniel talking to Mom.
Next to the alien blueberry ride was a little roller coaster. They could only have 10 people total on the ride at a time. As you can see here, Sadie was loving it!
As was Kathryn Elaine... (Sure love that face! It reminds me of Emily's smile.)
Daniel...? He wanted "Gwaaaamaaaa!" I had Oliver, so Caroline tried taking Daniel O on the ride, but he was clearly distraught. So I tried to take her place. He didn't want anything to do with me either. He just wanted his Grandma!
After this ride we convinced Daniel to try the flying cars. I thought
it would be one of those rides where the cars slowly moved up and down
as it spun around. Nope. The little cars bounced up and down much faster than I expected. Tasi put his arm around Daniel and that seemed to calm him some, though he still wasn't loving it. We tried Daniel on one more ride, the spinning bears. Each time his bear swung by, we could hear him saying, "OUT!" And so after that he was content to go to the petting zoo, watch the baby bears (so cute!) and putter around with cousins.
Jess. Sure love this kid. Josiah and Johno were good sports with all of these little cousins. All the other cousins were having a great time. Love them. And love that my little kids love them. I was impressed at how patient they were with each other. How grateful I am for family!
We ate lunch and then had lunch and then headed over to the big "Feed the Bears" truck. They gave us some brief instructions and then we were off. The truck was pretty cool. It's really tall and has a narrow balcony around the edge of the truck that we climbed up on. I tried to balance Daniel on my knee. There was a 2 inch metal bar parallel to the floor that I tried to keep my foot on so Daniel could sit/stand on my knee. It worked pretty well for the first half, but it was shaky for the last bit and sore the next day. They gave each person a big tray of bread and bagels to toss to the bears. It was so fun! Piper and Tasi broke their bread up and saved it so they would have plenty. Others (Kate and Daniel) wanted to toss it all out in the first minute. I always love listening to tour guides tell interesting tidbits. The gal that was with us said the bears have distinct personalities and that she knows each of their names. They have little shelters that they can hibernate in - some like to be alone and others like to snuggle in with others.
The truck drives the same path that we did when we first arrived. It stops periodically and the bears lumber over to the truck. They know the routine. It was so fun to watch them and listen to the kids talking to them. How cute are these bears?!
We planned on heading out soon after we fed the bears but somehow we ended up in the petting zoo for a bit and over on the dock looking at the ducks. Everyone was just chatting and enjoying the perfect weather (and perhaps delaying the long drive home). Daniel found some interesting things to keep him busy in the petting zoo (and yes, that is another bruise on his cheek)...
Kate was really nervous to pet any of the animals, but Jess was patient with her and showed her how fun it was to feed the goats. They kind of lick the pellets out of your hand and it tickles. She eventually tried it and half giggled/nervously squealed. I hope to be able to teach all our children how to do hard/scary things.
There was no convincing Kate to pet the big potbellied pig despite Johno's valiant efforts to make it look super fun!
How I love this girl. She's in the midst of the tumultuous threes, which can make for challenging days. But it never takes but a second to look at her and ache for her (and her siblings') happiness and want to do all I can to prepare them to find happiness in this life.
Eventually we all ended up at a duck pond to the side of the petting zoo chatting and decided to take a picture of the group. The picture didn't turn out too well...
but this one of Oliver did. What a joy this little soul is, our little "Oviva" (which is how Daniel says it).
The drive home was long. Matt called while we were on the road saying he was done with work (it was about 4:30pm). WHAT?!? When does that ever happen?? Only when we're not there :( We talked briefly about the idea of him coming up since it was a Friday and find a place to stay for the rest of the weekend, but in the end we decided to just head home. We hit some bad traffic in SLC and were at a complete standstill for a while. Matt looked up the best route for us to get home and I called the other cars in the group and we were able to eventually get off the freeway and be on our way. Bless that Matthew Jared Cornish. Even when he's not with us he makes our trip run smoother. Even with all the crazy it was a super fun trip. It's a challenge to keep track of all the Littles on my own, but we weren't on our own. I'm grateful for so many.
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