Kunz Family Reunion: Bear World

Recently, my parents decided that every few years they'd like to gather their children together and do a mini family reunion. I really like the idea because most of us have really small children and they grow and change so fast that I'd like to see them as much as possible. This past summer it was decided that we would go to West Yellowstone for the reunion. I grew up going to Yellowstone all the time. My parents grew up around that area. It holds a lot of nostalgia for our family. So here is the first day of the reunion. Buckle up, it's gonna be a long one.

We decided our first stop would be Bear World. Bear World is like a mini reserve that holds tons of bears, bison, elk, deer and various other wild animals. It's right outside of Rexburg, ID and it's really fun with the kids. The first part of Bear World is the reserve area that you drive through. After that there is a petting zoo and a small carnival ride area for the little kids.

Have you ever seen a white elk?  It was very cool.  It's funny how things are more remarkable when you see it first hand rather than through a camera lense.  Or maybe that's just a commentary on our photography skills.  Anyway, that's Nate's head with nose glued to the window as we drove through.

We had to caravan everywhere we went.  I'm in the big truck with my family and Dad driving.  Behind that is my brother John driving in Mom's car with her and his two boys, John and Hyrum.  Behind them was Jason and Liz with their three girls, Sydney, Maggie, and Charlie.  My Sister Krista was in there as well.  My youngest brother David and is wife, Abby, and their daughter Riley, didn't come with us to Bear World because he was taking one of his last finals at BYU-I.

Nate's been to Bear World before and remembered it and loved it.  We counted how many bears we saw.  Scarlett, as you can see, was more interested in her drink. 

Bison are everywhere!

I loved this bear.  Completely on his back sunning himself.  I don't know if I'd be doing anything different if I were him.

It's hard to get a good picture of the bears when you're driving through them.  Robert got this picture and I think it's the best one we got.

Here's the crew.  From left to right:  Harold (my dad), Me holding Scarlett, Teresa (my mom) holding Hyrum, Liz (oldest sister) holding Charlie, Jason (Liz's husband) holding Maggie, Nate, Sydney, John (the big tall John who is my younger brother) with John, his oldest son, standing in front of him, and Krista (sister just older than me).

Inside the petting zoo area they have an area fenced off where all the bear cubs play.

This was Scarlett's favorite.  She loved watching them play.

Nate: "Mom!  Am I as big as a bear?"

Scarlett would run back to the cub area and do this.  We knew where she was headed whenever she tried to take off. 

That is, until I showed her the petting zoo.  This is her trying to figure out if she can touch the goat and if the goat would let her.  She didn't quite touch it...

She decided to take a closer look first.

Nate loved the petting zoo. 

I finally got Scarlett to pet a fawn.  She loved it.  She pet them so delicately.  That's Hyrum with us.

This is me with Scarlett, Nate and Sydney.  The peacock in the picture caught Scarlett's eye.  She loves birds.  She's always pointing them out to me.  This one was the bird of birds because it was so big and pretty.  She figured she should pet it, too.  So we chased it for awhile.  She'd get so close to the beautiful tail feathers and the bird would move just in the nick of time.  So Scarlett decided to move on to greener pastures...

Apparently geese are just as interesting as peacocks.  At this point I think Scarlett was thinking any bird would do just as long as she could pet it.  Look at her reaching!

And reaching....

And the geese scattering!  Poor girl never got to pet a bird but she gave me and my dad lots to laugh about.

You must do a family picture like this when you come to Bear World.  Nate really got into the spirit.

On to the carnival rides!  The kids love this one.  It's Nate, Sydney, Maggie, John and Charlie.

Robert hates drop rides like this but got into it for his daughter.  Big John thought it would be fun to get in on the action with his boys, too.  You should have seen him trying to get his thick 6'4" frame into that seat!

Can you see Scarlett laughing?  Robert is always a good time and he's a sucker for his daughter.

I'm a sucker for her, too.  This is she and I on the mini coaster.

Nate and Sydney were behind us and Krista and Hyrum were behind them.

Look at that face!  He's so happy!  He's such a sweet kid.  I love him to death!

Last time we were at Bear World Robert rode this ride with Nate.  This time is was only appropriate for Scarlett to ride with him.  Besides, Nate was more interested in playing with his cousins that he never sees than playing with his family who is very boring...

Nate and Maggie.  Nate loves his cousins, especially Liz and Jason's girls. 

There's the smile I love from Scarlett.  There were no happier kids on the planet that day than my kids.

We ended the day at Green Canyon.  It's a natural hot springs and pool that I grew up swimming at with my Grandma Johnson and siblings.  Nothing had changed.  My kids loved it.  It had been a long day, though, so the hot springs wiped them out pretty fast.  After we swam we did a campfire with hotdogs and marshmallows and then packed up and drove the kids back to the hotel for bed.  I swear I looked back at their faces as we drove home and they were smiling in their sleep.  Nothing like blissful exhaustion.