Still in Bear World

After driving through the park once we got out to play for a while. After all we’d been sitting in the car for hours on end and the girls were going a little stir-crazy.

Rachel and Miriam measured themselves on the ride sizer and we found out that Rachel is taller than 36 inches so she could go on most rides by herself. We weren’t brave enough to do that, though, so we mostly accompanied her. Sometimes Miriam got to go on the rides, too.

We had heard that Bear World was dumb, so we were a little worried about what we would find there but it was absolutely perfect for Rachel. I could, however, see how a teenager would think it was lame. The rides were boring eight-year-olds, but Rachel thought they were amazing.

Andrew took her on the roller coaster.

Then I took her on some bouncy race cars.

At first we weren’t sure that Miriam was really allowed to go on any of the rides since she’s so little. So she sat in the stroller and glowered at everybody until we decided she could have a turn, too.

Miriam was all over the steering wheel.

Everybody loved the train.

There was one ride that took you way up high. We didn’t take Meme on that ride.

Miriam wasn’t very happy about being left behind with Mommy but Daddy made her feel better when he came back down.

Later Rachel met a little boy about her age and since he was riding rides by himself she decided she could do it, too. So she trailed behind this boy, going on every ride that he did.

She acted so grown up and followed all the rules. It was fun to see her managing buckles and things all on her own. I didn’t know how we’d ever manage to tear her away from the park but eventually the boy she was shadowing ditched her. That made her a whole lot more willing to come with us.

Our next stop was the petting zoo, which was mostly fun. Right when we walked through the gate we were accosted by a pregnant goat who wanted a good rubdown. I don’t blame her—I’m fond of massages when I’m pregnant, too.

At first Andrew was like, “That goat can’t be pregnant. It’s a boy. He has horns.”

“And an udder?” I asked him, “It’s a girl. Female goats have horns, too. Trust me, she’s pregnant.”

Once the goat was satisfied we were able to move onto other animals. The deer were especially tantalizing. I mean, you can pet a goat on any old farm but getting close enough to a wild deer to pet it is a trick. There were a few fawns in the petting zoo, as well as some does.

The smallest fawn was gentle and the doe she was hanging around was kind, too—she was even licking children in the face—but the other fawn, an antlering buck, was not at all gentle. He was grouchy, abusive, and over-protective of the other deer.

While Rachel finally got brave enough to approach the littlest fawn…

…when the grumpy, antlering fawn charged at her and started jumping around her in circles, bucking his legs out and acting rather aggressive.

That really ruined things for her. That, and the truculent turkeys who went around pecking everybody, searching for food pellets. Some poor kids had been given quarters by their parents and were trying to use them to get food out of the dispensers but they couldn’t turn the knob because they were swarmed upon by gobbling turkeys, snapping at their fingers, legs, and faces.

Rachel’s favourite animal in the zoo was, of course, a little pink and black pig—because it was pink. She had a hard time getting up the nerve to pet it, though, and I don’t blame her because pigs are so wiry and gross feeling.

It was hard to tear ourselves away from Bear World—we were there for about four hours—but we had so many other things to do in Rexburg that we had to say goodbye.