Bring it on…Bears!

We took a lot of drives and put  on a lot of miles on the Suburban looking for wildlife beyond deer and squirrels. Ella started taunting the bears from the safety of her car seat. Most of the trip resulted in a chorus of, “Bring it on bears!” “C’mon bears!” “Let’s go bears!”

On our way to Bozeman, we stopped at the headwaters of the Missouri river. And as exciting as that is, Ella made it even more fun. Upon exiting the car, we heard a train coming and the tracks were nearby, across the parking lot. We waited for the train and as it passed, Ella and I waved. The conductor saw us and decided the friendly gesture was to blow the horn. Ella was not expecting that! She startled and jumped a foot, backed up and fell on her butt all in the span of a second. It was so funny. She talked about that train for hours, she loved it! But of course, there had to be some drama. Ella wandered around the side of the car into a grassy area where she was picking up rocks. She happened upon a real winner of a rock, pretty large in comparison to the gravel around it. Except, it wasn’t a rock. It was dog poop. Fresh dog poop. We were so grossed out, she was immediately washed and sanitized thoroughly. I have to admit my skin was still crawling every time she’d reach to hold my hand. But once we got over the poop incident, we were back to enjoying the scenes.

As we drove into Bozeman, we decided to take some time to go to a bear refuge to finally see some grizzlies. And of course, even though we'd paid for the ability to see bears, we walked back to the enclosures and there were zero bears. Only our family would pay to see bears in an enclosure and still not even see any! But, within a few minutes, a door opened off to the side and two bears ambled out. We learned that they have four bears and they only come out two at a time because a few bears don't get along. So they rotate throughout the day who is outside and who is inside. The largest bear, who is trained and featured in many Animal Planet shows and bear awareness videos was inside, but we did get to see two of their youngest bears, Jake and Maggie. Even though they were young grizzlies, they were big. These bears had been rescued from bad situations, a couple of them were crammed in a cage that was about 6 feet by 5 feet by 5 feet. Two, full size bears. They couldn’t even lift their heads fully. So, they were in a better place, and it allowed us to finally see some bears, close up!

   

Ella got a little bored by the bears so she started to entertain herself with the items around her…

This was the only hotel we stayed at with a pool. The first night, I took Ella swimming and she was in love. Loran took her the second night and was able to enjoy the craziness. Laughing, screaming and a giant smile on her face the entire time. I even got her to jump into the pool. By jump, I mean, she’d walk off the side into my arms. Eventually, we had to pull the plug on swimming both nights when Ella was unable to maintain body temperature and was shivering uncontrollably, so we’d wrap her in a towel and plop her in a warm bath where she’d continue the swimming antics. Lily didn’t swim this time, but she enjoyed watching the antics. She was a little worried when Ella would scream, but couldn’t stop watching.

 

Our last full day in Montana, we went to the Museum of the Rockies. We learned an important lesson, Ella does not like the planetarium. About three seconds into the show, she started screaming and about three seconds after that, we were rooting through the dark trying to find the door to safety. Once out, Ella kept asking, “Dark? All done??” “Safe?” But, the museum had an amazing dinosaur collection and an even more amazing children’s space centered around Yellowstone. The fake geysers that went off periodically kept your heart in check, but other than that, it was all good. Both girls fell asleep during our excursion and we had to leave to have a lunch break. But, we had a great time exploring and learning. Both girls left with plush dinosaurs and a healthy fear of planetarium shows.

 

  

 

I was a little overwhelmed at the prospect of packing everything that had consumed the rear of the Suburban back into three suitcases, but low and behold after some creativity and muscle, I wrestled everything back in for the journey home. Our flight was delayed a little over an hour which was really making the younger constituents restless because their naptime was supposed to be on our flight. Once on board, with no extra seats this time, Ella fell asleep promptly and Lily was only a little bit of a tyrant, napping most of the time, smiling at others most of the time and wiggling the rest of the time.
The suitcases were unpacked, and clothes were laid out by the time we went to bed. The following day would not be a relaxing one since not only was it my birthday, it was also Ella’s first day of school. Nothing like jumping right into reality with a great big splash!