Island Park Camping Trip

We drove the five hour trip to Island Park last Friday night for Shelby's family's annual camping trip. I was so excited to see everyone and have lots of adventures with my kids. On Saturday morning we got up and headed to West Yellowstone. We took old-fashioned pictures (I'll post those later) and then went to the Yellowston Bear and Wolf Discovery Center. The kids had so much fun looking at the bears and wolves and I think they learned alot in the process.

Here's Livvy with her Grandpa JonBelow is my best friend Brandee- She kept joking around that she had to stay away from me or risk having her picture on the web for all to see- Ha Ha Brandee- got you anyway! She's 9 months pregnant with her 3rd and looks so good!
They had a bear rug on display so the kids could feel what bear fur really feels like. Wyatt thought it was hilarious to pretend that the bear was biting off his arm.

Livvy was a little less sure about this bear. I don't know who told her mean things about bears- but the entire trip she was quite sure that they were waiting in the woods to eat her. She'd shake her finger at the trees as we were driving down the road and say "No No bears- you no eat me!"
Here's a shot of most of the family on the platform watching the bears- I can pick out Wyatt, Nancy, Steven, Livvy, Grandpa Jon, Grandma Wendy, Tate and Holly- the rest are further down on the platform.

Wyatt absolutely loved looking at the bears through these telescopes. He was so funny.

Here the kids are exploring a tee-pee at the exit of the Discovery Center- Livvy is showing you what the Indians say.

Here's a shot of all of the cousins that went with us- there are actually quite a few missing, but never fail - Wyatt is bossing Wyatt around trying to get him to stand behind her. That's where the pictures end- but the fun sure doesn't! I just was a little chicken about carrying my camera all over with me since it's still new. Shelby and I were able to go on a 4 wheeler ride at dusk with some of the other couples and we saw a cow moose, a skunk, and 2 deer and Shelby succeeded in almost making me pee my pants in fear as he jumped our 4 wheeler and kept skidding to a stop. Men and their toys! We also went on a 2 hour canoe trip down the "Icy Cold River" as Wyatt calls it. It's really quite funny because Shelby and I had been trying to comfort those that thought we were crazy for taking our kids in a tippy canoe. I said "Shelby and I have both canoed alot- we'll be fine." We got to the dock and they put our canoe in- Shelby climbed in first, then I put Livvy and her chair in, then I climbed in and sat down. We had a narrow, pointed bottom canoe and flipped over immediately. Livvy went flying (she had a life jacket on) but we were all soaking wet. It was hilarious. I am laughing right now even as I am typing it. It turns out that my seat in the canoe was broken and we didn't find out until half way down the river- we just thought it was exceptionally tippy. Livvy ended up floating down the river with Grandma Wendy and Grandpa Jon with Wyatt in their nice wide flat bottom canoe- luck of the draw I guess. I giggled all the way down the river at our funny humbling experience. We did see a Bald Eage and her eaglets?- 3 bull moose and lots of fish on our canoe trip. The kids fished with their fake fishing pole and sucked on suckers and Shelby and I just tried not to flip ourselves back in the "Icy Cold River". It was a great trip and I cried and cried to leave Shelby's wonderful family and my great friends Brandee and Amie. It reminded me how much fun we always had in Tremonton and now those time have just become more and more precious. Grandma Wendy did take lots of pictures on her camera of our canoe trip and other fun activities and will hopefully email them to me soon to post.