badlands goodlands

Some observations from my journal today: rainy Calgary, clean Super 8 , delicious Joseph coffee in Bodum, yellow wheat fields, scattered oil pumps, children texting grandparents and friends, Royal Tyrell Museum-beautiful!, van lunch again, badlands, Town of Drumheller – dinosaur everything, sitting in the back of van with kids, Abby in front, walking outside to indoor pool, flurries in Medicine Hat.

another bird that has been sighted many times, but hard to photograph has been this "magpie", you can see by their long tail that they stand out quite easily from other birds, their even more magnificent in flight - as their tail fans out and almost acts as a wing

this museum, had an open glass wall into a fossil preparation area, and we were able to watch the scientists at work 

Today we traveled from Drumheller to Medicine Hat.Only a three hour drive it was very enjoyable. We started the day with a wonderful visit to Royal Tyrell Museum. It had wonderful exhibits, Large fossils, bone collections, and many other things. I have to say though my favourite was the prehistoric sea creatures. The first exhibit was a stunning one. It required you to step onto a glass floor with strange model creatures under it. It was so fun! The second one was a life like coral reef. I could have stood there four ever! You always could find something new. How lovely. We continued towards Medicine Hat only to hit wind and snow! We were very surprised but I was glad to sit in the front with dad. We eventually got there, and went swimming. The only down side was you had to run outside to the building in your bathing suit, which was COLD! But it was still fun. We then went to supper. We got there with the help of Magellan, but dad and I got pretty upset when we missed three turns because she was so slow. We came back very cold so we crashed in the hot tub! What a wonderful day! Thank you Jesus!

-Abigail-

even during a long day, someone can rest against the curves of a triceratops, 

with the falling rain, adding to the rain that fell the last two days, we were able to see the earth in "action" as sediments washed away from badland hillsides, creating streams of colour and shape

after Abigail weighed herself on a museum scale ( and realized she was 90lbs) she was now able to move to the front seat, which meant Katrina had to brave the boys...

when booking a month in advance, it never occurred to me to ask if  the difference between the room we were staying in, and the heated pool would be a flight of stairs and a cold, wet, snowy parking lot.....but these are the things I'll be better at asking about the next time.