Pics coming soon...

Regan is away on a little motorcycle foret in Montana for the weekend, and has the camera with the most pics on it. So when we get back from our Northern Sask trip, I'll post a bunch of pics from the whole summer.

So, Dinosaur Park (which is not Drumheller, I learned it is just outside of Brooks) is FANTASTIC! By far my favourite part of our week! This is a region where there are literally millions of dinosaur fossils just waiting to be found. We stayed at a campground right down in the valley of the badlands, and our site backed onto a great big badland hill you could climb and see the entire valley 360 degrees. We went on hikes, and Ellie and I did a fossil safari where we were taken into a restricted area with a guide and we hunted for fossils for about an hour. And I kid you not, you could not step 2 feet without stumbling accross a fossil embedded in the ground, or loose. I'm telling you, it was AMAZING!! When you see the pics you will be just blown away. Ellie and I alone found about 20 fossils ranging in size from a tiny piece of rib to a giant spinal column sticking out of the ground! I even found a carnivour tooth about and inch and a half in length. We had a very thorough "class" before hand on what to look for and characteristics on certain fossils so we knew what to look for. And good thing, once you know what you are looking for, they are literally everywhere in this area! Our guide told us that teeth usually do not lose their enamel and are usually shiny. So when I saw something shiny in front of me, I thought, "This is probably good." And went forward and looked, and saw the shiny fossil of a big tooth with a very clear serated edge (like a steak knife) so I knew it was a carnivore. SO EXCITING!

Ayana did great! Like I said, her sleeping was an adventure at night, so the first couple of nights we did not get much sleep listening to her rythmically banging her head on the bottom of her playpen, or talking to herself. But eventually she got used to the whole trailer thing and slept thru the night, or maybe we got used to her head banging! Either way, we slept pretty well.

We had some pretty extreme weather on the trip though, holy moly. At Dinosaur park Regan was napping in the trailer, and Ellie Ayana and I were outside. There was a wicked storm brewing, so I tucked everything under our large pop-up tent. Suddenly out of no where, a HUGE gust of wind raged in and I yelled at Ellie to go get her Dad, and Ayana is in her stroller and I am holding onto our pop-up tent for dear life. If the pop-up (it's a very big tent with no sides and metal frame) took off it would have smashed into our brand new truck! The awning of our trailer was thrashing wildly and next thing I know the trailer door flies open and there stands Regan looking like Doc Brown in Back to the Future (see above) just standing there completely stunned looking at me and the chaos.He stood there for what seemed like forever, and by this time Ayana is crying, I'm freaking out and he is just standing there. (I am killing myself laughing right now at this. I cannot tell you how many times we laughed till we were crying at Regan remembering this moment over the holiday.) I guess, he said later, that he was in a dead sleep and he opened the door of the trailer and from his point of view in the serenity of the inside of the trailer was his wife clinging for dear life to the tent, her hair whipping violently around her face, the awning about to be torn off the side of the trailer, and his baby daughter in her stroller amid all of the craziness screaming her head off. I was shrieking at him (the wind was SO loud) "What should we do with the tent???!!!" And he said in those seconds his mind was racing, "What do I do!! AAAhhhh!!! There is so many things wrong with this picture!!" (Although the way he says it is much funnier, he does this whisper screaming which is hysterical.) Anyway, so he comes to finally, and comes out and I help him with the awning and I take the baby inside where Ellie is screaming, "OH MY GOD!!!! OH MY GOD!!!" Aaaah, the serenity. It was pretty freaky for a bit there, I had thoughts of a family friend whose trailer was flipped up and over with her in it by a tornado a few years back. Finally it subsided and we all retreated to the trailer until awhile later when it was calm again. And that was not the only time we were supremely freaked out by the weather. But more on that later.

Occasionally Ayana would get crabby. Go figure. You know, naps all screwed up, feeding schedule completely wacked, and she would cry while I was making her supper or whatever. In a small trailer it can grate on your nerves let me tell you, and she can get so carried away that even Ellie will not make her happy. She'll just swipe at anyone within striking distance just like a cat, like an air scratch. It's actually pretty funny. Anyway, Regan was brushing his teeth during one of her episodes, and he comes out saying in a super sweet tone, "Ayana, nobody likes a cry baby, k? So can you stop crying now?" It was SO funny, OMG did we laugh. Once fed though, it was like a light switch to happy baby. In fact we were all like that. If we went to many hours without eating we were all ready to kill eachother, but within minutes of eating, our blood sugar was back up and all was right with the world.

This trip was such a fantastic way for us to really bond as a family unit. It was AWESOME. Ayana is super attached to her Dad now. He can pick her up anytime, she'll sponteniously kiss and hug his leg or arm or back or whatever is within reach. Her and Ellie played a lot in the trailer. They came up with all sorts of games. One time, Ellie was running the length of the trailer and banging against the bathroom door and falling down, to which Ayana would hysterically laugh. After a few times of this, suddenly Ayana goes running down the ailse and bangs her hands on the door and quickly whips around and has this huge smile! We started laughing our heads off, and she just stood there with this huge grin and proud look, and did it again and again and again, each time whipping really quick around to see if we were laughing, and man were we ever! What a clever chickadee! She also figured out how to open the screen door, she slides he plastic cover over and pushes down the handle. So she had to get a big "NO!" for that a couple of times. Yikes. Anything mechanical she has an uncanny way of figuring out how it works. Oh, and the other thing she started to do later on, was helped us put our sunscreen on. At first we did not know what she was doing, we were all putting it on, and I was putting Ellie's on, and there she was sort of "wax on, wax off" (think Karate Kid) motioning with her hand against Ellie's leg! She then reached up her little hand with a little sound from her mouth asking for more sunscreen!!! So we would pretend to put it on, and she would rub her hands together and continue to help applying it!!! OMG, so funny. And this trip also made me see again what a terrifac big sis Ellie is! And such a HUGE help to me!! Of course when Ayana lets her. There is definately a rivalry brewing, and poor Ellie is just trying to help, but Ayana is very quick with the 'ol feline swipe and accompanying ear piercing screech. Of course, Ellie is no angel. I have caught her a few times forcing Ayana to hug or kiss over and over and over when the moment is clearly way passed its expiry. And as Ayana gets more and more mad, Ellie gets a bigger and bigger kick out of it. You know, typical sibling stuff. Big sister torchering little sister, little sister bugging big sister. There was a bit of "Mom! She HIT me!!" Or Ayana's screeching as Ellie is insisting on resting her hand on Ayana's car seat. "But MOM, it is COMFORTABLE there!" Again... the serenity.

More later!