Bear and Moose Oh My

This has been animal adventure week for us. 

Sunday Rob was down in our living room and we were upstairs playing with Barbies when he whispered something to us.  I yelled down ... WHAT?! :)  He then said BEAR!  Of course...we went in fast motion all the way down the stair.  He said the Mom was on our deck crossing in front of our large bay window.  They milled around for a bit when I grabbed my camera to get a few shots from INSIDE.  Do not mess with a mom and her baby....regardless of species.  Actually, all of this weeks animal pics are from the safety of inside :)



Just a silly coincidence I have noticed in the nearly 13 years I have lived here, you see bears more on cloudy days ... not sunny.  This broke my theory.  We named these two Rose (mom) and Rosie (babe).

We headed out later in the spectacular glorious day to finally wash my car and see what the bears left behind.

This is just an instinctive reaction...it did not smell.

After an outfit change (it was drenched from the car wash), Amelia and Dad headed out with the remote control car.  He chases her with the car until her belly aches from laughing so hard.  This gave me time to do some sanding on a bookshelf I am redoing. 

Then it had warmed up enough to cool off in the sprinkler. Only Alaskan kids do this sort of thing.  It was warm, but not that warm.

Rob left for a week trip to Dallas.  We headed out each day working on sidewalk chalk paintings, always alert for that momma and baby bear we spotted on Sunday.

And a bit of hopscotch with obstacles to make it interesting (this was not my idea). 

Thursday it was a bit cloudy and we decided to do some bubbles instead of chalk, but the mosquitos were relentless so we headed in to work on a few Lego sets. 

I was sitting our our floor at a right angle to Amelia.  She sat facing the same bay window where Rob saw the momma bear. 

She was eating her lunch.   Then I hear "mom" in a strange little voice. I glanced at her and saw terror...followed her gaze and on the deck, looking straight at us was a black bear.  I paused a moment.  He/she did not leave.  I grabbed Amelia's hand and said lets go.  Thoughts of the bear pushing that glass out crossed my mind.  It wouldn't really take much.  I tried to find my phone (he was still looking in), in case we have to call 911 for a bear break in. 

No worries, he walked away.  We named him Voldemort.

He hung around though for quite awhile.  And almost back on the deck...I shut the blinds a bit.  

Just imagine his face right up to the window.  Right between the Grizzly pillow on the Left and the Polar bear pillow on the Right!   Hahahaha...seriously if I only I had a pic of that!  

So.

I picked up Amelia yesterday at pre-school and heading home I noticed a few parked cars and Amelia yelled MOOSE! A crazy young moose was bucking and charging in someones yard (no person was around thank goodness).  He came pretty close to the car as we drove past and pulled over.  He did this crazy dance for quite awhile until he trotted off.  Weird.  Usually they are quietly standing nibbling on trees.  This is why moose are sometimes more dangerous than bear.  They have a temper.   No, no pics of the crazy moose.  HOWEVER, this guy was in our yard this morning! 

Crazy animal week in AK!

Lastly, as a surprise for Rob when he returned Yesterday, Amelia and I hung the entry light that hangs almost 30 feet high.  Well, not exactly us...but the guys we called to do it for us :)  Looks great!

Before: 

After:

I love it.