Bear World

I left out bear world on my last post! How could I?! We took my grandmother on a drive through Bear World. Bear World is a big, outdoor zoo. It's not actually called a zoo, but essentially, that's what it is. At bear world, they have deer, wolves, and, obviously, bears. You drive through bear world. All the bears are behind electric fences. It's kind of like Jurassic Park, minus the dinosaurs. You can take a tour on a bus if you don't want to drive your car through. Again with the Jurassic Park. It was actually pretty cool. The bears are free to walk around in their electric cages. The wander across the road, meander next to your car, lie in the shade, fight with each other, stuff like that. My grandmother kept saying that Yellowstone used to be that way - with the bears wandering around the cars begging for food. Behind the gift shop, they have set up little cages for the cubs. The cubs were really cute! They wrestled with each other for the spot on top of the tree stump. Did you know that bears are pigeon-toed and that when they've been skinned, they look just like a human being? (I didn't learn that second part at Bear World.)











The white spot in the picture is the wolf. That's about all we saw of him, too.

The Rest of Summer

I was going to title this "The End of Summer" but that sounds too sad. I'm sure you've all been dying to know what I did with the rest of my summer (or not dying to know, either way.) As I'm updating this blog, I'm listening to "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" by Chicago. Nothing says awkward junior high dance like "Hard to Say I'm Sorry." For all those of you that heard me say "I hate 80's music" I let my brother in law download some onto my laptop and I'm starting to feel friendlier towards 80's music now. Maybe I didn't like 80's music because of all those awkward junior high dances. Now it's "I wanna be a cowboy" - oh yeah! What a flashback. Wow.

Anyway, back to summertime. After California, we went to the Playmill, this fantastic little theater in West Yellowstone. We saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It's this fun little theater-in-the-round where the actors get right up in the faces of the audience. That was the first night of our four day trip through Yellowstone Park. Incidentally, Yellowstone Park is my favorite place in the world. For the record.

You know, let me back up. We actually started this adventure through Yellowstone with me being dropped off at Wal-Mart to pick up something we had forgotten. Now, I need to explain that we traveled through Yellowstone in our friend's wonderful, brown 1974 RV. Picture this: I call my mom to tell her I'm finished shopping and she says "Okay, we're pulling up." Think movie: where you see the back of the heroine and through her eyes you see this butt ugly RV pull up and she has to get in. I hid my face, ran to the RV, and started yelling, "Move, move, I don't want anyone to see me getting in this!" I looked at my sisters (who had looks of pity on their faces) and we all started laughing. If you've seen the movie "RV", we could've nicknamed our RV "The big rolling turd" as well.

Anyway, back to Yellowstone. We got up the next morning, went to church where we saw all the actors from the Playmill because they all come from Ricks or BYU, and then ditched out early to head into the park. We spent the next two days touring through beautiful, amazing Yellowstone. If you've never been, you have to go. Take lots of film! It was SO much fun!

Monday night, we stayed in Grand Teton National Park, another visually stunning national park that you have to see if you've never been. Tuesday morning, we went into Jackson and went white water rafting. It was a blast! And our river guide was really hot. (But all river guides are really hot. I think they list that under "Qualifications" on the job listing.) Anyway, we all jumped out of the raft into the bitter, icy, freezing waters of the Snake River. (This was my sister's brilliant idea, btw.) Of course, once we jumped out "The Nick" (see hot river guide above) had to pull us back into the raft. Yeah ...... :) Anyway, once we finished rafting and then eating lunch, we headed back to IF. We stopped for square ice cream cones in Swan Valley before heading home. Oh, yeah, you also need to stop for square ice cream cones in Swan Valley. They're awesome.

Once we got back to IF, we had to clean out the RV. By we, I mean me. Everyone somehow disappeared when we got home. Okay, my mom helped a little.

We had such a great time. Of course, I've included some pictures (including the RV) for your viewing enjoyment.











Old Faithful

















The bison were everywhere. We had to wait for an hour at one point for them to move off the road.















This is Lewis Falls. I took this by walking out on a log in the middle of the river. Livin' on the edge.














One of the geysers in Yellowstone



















This is one of the geyser formations on the way to Morning Glory geyser at Old Faithful. This is also my sister.












The Grand Tetons

















I saved the peanut butter cups in my square ice cream for the very end because the peanut butter cups were the point of the ice cream in the first place.













Our beautiful RV. My beautiful family.