Draper Family Mauled by Bears!

Saturday 4/21/2012 4:30pm MST- The Drapers, a family of four, were driving along a curvy road minding their own business when suddenly a group of bears appeared forcing the vehicle to come to a neck-wrenching halt. The hungry bears sniffed and examined the car and finally one saw fit to attack the vehicle with extreme prejudice! The family found themselves locked in the menacing jaws of a young, grizzly bear! Not knowing what to do the head of the household hit the gas in a desperate attempt to elude the onslaught, but to no avail. In an act of desperation, he did what any self respecting victim would do and aimed his 10-14 mp camera at the beast and shot in an attempt to capture live footage of the traumatizing event. However, like bringing a knife to a gunfight, the batteries in the camera failed; there were no replacements on hand. The only pieces of evidence of this horrific display are a single blurry photo of the culprit meandering from the scene and the gory aftermath photographed later that evening. Local officials with a load of witnesses mockingly watched as the encounter ensued. However, a separate witness did respond with a call to the victims' cell phone to see if the any had survived the tragic incident.

 

 

What really happened...

The Drapers enjoyed a trip to Yellowstone Bear World. They were driving through the park following a tour bus that had people throwing food to the bears. The Drapers did there best to keep their distance from the bus in order to avoid the appearance of having food to throw out. However, a bear came to the rear of the car and sniffed and licked the bumper as if there was something delicious on it. Robert then slowly inched forward trying to help the bear lose interest but could only move so far before getting the attention of the other 5-10 bears ahead. Robert inched forward again to no avail and even revved the engine a bit. Finally, the bear sank it's teeth into the bumper! Only after that did it decide it wasn't interested. Later another bear had stopped us to lick some dead bugs off our headlight. Thank goodness that was all! 

SPRINGTIME FUN BEGINS!

Our fun-filled Saturday began in Idaho Falls at a kids' fair that a friend had given us tickets for. It was great because Dora the Explorer, her friend Boots and cousin Diego were going to be there for the kids to meet. In case you didn't know, Kenya loves watching Dora the Explorer.  So when we told Kenya about them she was pretty excited. There were tons of people there and tons of things to do. There were at least 7 different bounce houses and a bunch of games and activities for kids. Also there were a bunch of booths where business gave away free stuff! That is always a plus! There were stage performances in abundance, all performed by kids of various ages. Kenya even got her face painted again and got to meet a couple Disney Princesses.

At about 1pm we decided to head to Yellowstone Bear World. They were having a half price day, with unlimited park drive through, an Easter egg hunt for kids, unlimited children's amusement ride rides,  and we had never been, so why not? We even got more half price entries for the future by going that day! Below is some footage of Kenya in action in her 4th Easter egg hunt of the year!

 

Kenya is an Easter egg hunting animal!

 

There was tons of candy scattered and also plastic eggs that contained a piece of paper that had a prize of some sort on it. After the hunt we were going to go redeem her prizes, but everyone else who had participated decided to all at the same time so we changed our mind to drive through the park and see what they had to offer. 

Of course we went during the hottest part of the day so the animals weren't very active (thank goodness we had unlimited park drive through)

This big grizzly was just inside the gate as soon as we entered!

One of the 2 White Elk they have there. They look way better when they have their antlers!

A common sight for the bears at this time of day!

Now this bear had the right idea!

We also saw some bison, turkeys, mountain goats, wolves, deer, and regular elk.

After going through the park the first time we went to redeem some of the free ice cream and soda that Kenya had earned from the hunt and to ride some of the amusement rides. Plus there was a petting zoo included we totally took advantage of. It was blasted hot!

While we waited at least 20 minutes for mommy to get refreshments Kenya rode the train!

Kenya does excellent sharing

Mmmmmmm! That's where it's at!

After refreshments we went to the petting zoo where there was a pot belly pig, chickens, goats, a couple of peacocks, ducks and a fawn and deer! 

You can feed the goats, but we got to them too late because they all refused to eat!

Ever see a male peacock with white feathers? Well here he is!

This chicken belongs on the show Weird, True and Freaky!

 

Mommy and Kenya rode a couple of rides while Daddy and Jasmin went to watch the bear cubs.

 

This is Kenya's first roller coaster ride and we thought she might get a little scared...especially since she had to ride on her own without Mommy and Daddy but...

...she did great and loved it!!

 

Kenya rode the roller coaster many more times and rode this other ride that took a group straight up and did some short free falls. We have a video of it but it is pretty long and would take forever to upload.

She got brave and put her arms up...when it wasn't moving yet!

The fish lip baby is so cute!

 We drove through the park one last time and tailed the curator bus and that is when we got to see the bears in action.  In this one enclosure at the beginning of the tour there were two grizzlies. The dominant one chase after the other bear doing laps around the enclosure because they wouldn't share their food!

We had a busy but fun filled day and best of all the girls loved it and were in great spirits the whole day! They both conked out pretty quickly on the way home because of all the fun in the sun we had...and it's only the beginning.