A "Beary" Exciting Time

On Saturday August 30th we loaded up and went to Mt. Rainier park hoping to get a good close up view. It ended up being the coldest day yet, it even snowed a little on us. The girls freaked out going up the winding narrow roads at 6210 feet. We were at the base of Mt. Rainier and would not have even realized it had we not known it was there.We decided that we paid good money and no matter how cold we were going to hike. Karlie did not like that idea and cried (very loudly) all the way up to the first overlook. Then her and Den had a battle.

If you did not know better this would look like a real sweet bonding moment between father and daughter. If you could see their faces truth would be told.

After the battle ended we headed up the trail.

Kody and Kelsee were a little bit ahead of us. All of a sudden Kody stopped and said, "I see a bear." Him and Kelsee were both so calm that I thought he was kidding us. Sure enough about 30 feet in front of them was a black bear.

We quickly turned around as he started to follow us down the trail. Den was so excited to get a picture of the bear that he could not hold the camera still. So this is what we got.
As we got further down the trail the bear took a detour down the side of the mountain and the cars down there got awesome pictures of him. I guess though that we got the best ones in our mind. It was exciting and a little scary. I had made fun of Den for straping on his big hunting knife just to hike the hill.....

Later we had a picnic at the bottom of the hill and afterward the sky started to clear up. I made Den drive back up the road (the girls were not happy) so we could possibly get a peak at Mt. Rainier. It was a small break in the clouds and within minutes it was gone again.
Kelsee and Karlie do not want to go on another hike anytime soon!