Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Alberta 2016: Day 2 Royal Tyrell Museum

Day two at Drumheller took us on a tour of the Museum.  We got there bright and early so we would have ample time. 








The boys posed with the Pachycephalosouri out front.


This is Black Beauty, a Tyrannosaurus Rex whose bones turned black because of the sediment she/he fossilized in.
We learned that the Royal Tyrell is the only museum in the world to house three full T-rex skeletons. All of which were found in Alberta.

A weird lizard thing that apparently you are not supposed to sit on.

There were many museum hosts who were carrying around little bags and if you stopped and asked them what they had, they would take stuff out and explain it to you.  The one was dino poop.
Tarantula


Matthew was supposed to go back for another activity but he decided he wanted to swim instead.  
Since it was rainy, most of the country was at the museum in the morning and our tickets were good all day, Matthew and I decided to head back after supper.  When we got there the place was almost deserted (maybe 10 people were there).  It was so wonderful.  We got to take our time or skip stuff, we got to enjoy all the interactive computer additions to the exhibits without having to jostle with several other people. The best part was when we went into the tunnel of the Devonian Sea.  It is a large exhibit with plexiglass on the floor, walls and ceiling with a recorded and light co-rodinated explanation of all the creatures.  I sat down on the floor near the back wall and Matthew climbed in to my lap.  We sat through the presentation three times without a single other person to interrupt us just soaking in the information and the snuggles.  This was my most favorite moment of the whole trip.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Alberta 2016: Day 1 Drumheller

On July  9th of 2016, Alex, Matthew and I flew up to Calgary, Alberta to meet up with Nana, Papa, Auntie Colleen, Uncle Carlam and Daniel (Claire was gone for her summer with the Junior Forest Rangers) for a week long dinosaur museum and camping excursion.  We spent two and a half days in Drumheller exploring the Royal Tyrell Museum and 5 days camped at Bow Valley just outside of Canmore B.C.


Our first day at the Museum was filled with  excursions. Unfortunately, due to rain our hike turned into a lecture followed by a mini dig through some pre sifted rocks and bones.  It sounds boring but digging though the box of bones was actually really interesting and we found some cool stuff. 



Matthew found the presentation a little slow so he amused himself by pulling out all of the puppets and having his portrait taken with them








Matthew an Papa teamed up while Carlam supervised



An ammonite
Turtle tooth
Hadrosaur knuckle

The box of goodies Daniel and I excavated

Later in the day Matthew was supposed to do a junior dig but again due to weather it turned in to a class so Matthew opted to spend his time in the gift shop (a twist of fate, aka his brother throwing a fit on the plane, landed him some extra cash that he was eager to exchange for new dinosaurs).


4th of July

We bought some small fireworks (compared to most of my neighbors)
We let the kids light some with heavy supervision and a very heavy oven mitt
the kids from down the street joined us


As did their parents

The big finale

FOUR YEARS OLD!!!

July 3rd was a weekday.
Alex got a candle in his eggs!
Made a wish
For his 4th birthday, he got a micro mini BMX bike. He was stunned and thrilled!


BXM Nationals

The weekend after BMX camp a big race was held at River Valley.
Alan Hudson, pro the boys met at camp, were supposed to be competing so we all went to watch and potentially say hi.
It was a very busy place with about 130 motos and many sponsors.
In between races we found Alan, he remembered the boys and great with them.
Matthew will be a fan for life.