Happy Birthday Peanut!

After Bear Country we went back to the hotel for a nap.  The birthday girl slept for several hours before waking up!  I had to dig up the “I am 2” shirt I made for Boo’s 2nd birthday!  Peanut loved the “birdie” and “buh-fy”.

We set up a little “party” on the deck.

Miss L made the birthday girl’s favorite food for dinner…pancakes!

Bug and Boo had spent over an hour on one of our drives making a Frozen book for A’s birthday.  She loved it!  “O-la!” (Olaf)

“Anna! Esa!”

Sweet sisters!

There was only one grocery store and they didn’t have much for cake options so we decided to order an ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen.  I should have specified pink or purple frosting…oh well. :)

So happy!

Happy Birthday to you…

Family pic with the birthday girl!

Vanilla on bottom, fudge and cookie crust in the middle, and oreo blizzard on the top.  Yum!

After cake we let her dive right into the presents.

Boo picked out a Minnie and Daisy tea set.  Love the look on her face.

Peanut was SO happy! 

She LOVES Minnie!

A “bah-game!”  I realize now that this is what she calls any ball not a game.

Minnie fork and spoon.

Minnie stickers (these were VERY handy on the car ride home…kept her busy for quite a few miles!).

Minnie doll!

“Yay Minnie mine!”

Bug picked out a baby bed.  Peanut promptly put Minnie to bed and blew her kisses as she walked away, just like I do for her every night. :)

After playing with her new toys for a while we had to get ready for bed.  Daddy read some books, and then it was off to dreamland for our newly turned 2 year old!

Bear Country!

One of my favorite things we did was visit Bear Country, a sort of drive-thru zoo.  They have over 25 species of animals on 200 acres.  There were different sections of animals behind fenced areas (so they wouldn’t eat each other), and you were able to drive right through them. We had a great time slowly driving and hunting for each kind of animal on the map.

Rocky Mountain Elk

Artic Wolves (or as Peanut said, “Doggy!”)

Dall Sheep

Big Horn Sheep (and baby)

Rocky Mountain Goat – these guys must not be very friendly because they were behind a barbed wire fence and unable to come up to the car.

Havin’ fun!

Reindeer

Mountain Lions – the most dangerous…they were behind several sets of very tall fencing with what looked like an electric fence as well.  There were about a dozen of them.

And the main attraction…the black bear! At first we were excited to find one…

And then we started seeing them all over.  One here, one there.

This guy was so funny!

But THEN the bread truck came by!  It’s hard to see but that bed is filled with sliced bread and they shoveled it out along the path right where the cars go by.

All of the sudden bears started coming from every direction!

We counted over 50 from where we were!

They were hilarious and sat there eating little slices of bread with their huge paws.  They didn’t glance twice at the cars, but a couple of bears walked within inches of us.

This guy had a funny expression on his face.  It was a hot day and you could see them all panting hard.  Several of them went and took a dip in the pond.

It was so cool to get to observe all those bears up close!  We also saw one Timber Wolf and a few buffalo.

Then this pronghorn was standing stock still right by the road near the exit.  It was as if he wanted his picture taken and was standing as still as possible to make sure I got the best shot.

What a fun birthday event!

After you drive through you get to park and do the “walking tour” of Babyland.

They also had one huge Grizzly.  He was monstrous! But also very tired…yawn! :)

They had all sorts of small animals: badgers, woodchucks, skunks, beavers, porcupines. And babies: bobcats, lynx, bears, raccoons, coyotes, red foxes, and artic foxes.

The kids screamed and held their noses even though this guy didn’t stink.

Peanut kept pausing and wanting me to take her picture every few feet. :)

Another puddle, this time the birthday girl got muddy!

The bear cubs were by far the biggest hit! They were SO cute! One little guy got stuck in the tree for about ten minutes before finally getting down.

They wrestled and pushed and poked and prodded each other.  Just like two sisters I know. :)

T got a video with his phone.

So cute!

Boo has grown SO much this summer! Her legs have really lengthened out!

Sweet baby foxes

Peanut and Boo both wanted pictures with the flowers.

We walked around the gift shop and K used her souvenir money from Noni to buy a little bear stuffed animal.  Then outside one of the workers was putting tattoos on the kids.  Peanut was very proud of hers!

What an awesome place!!!