pack up your bags, bells!

i think the best week i've had all summer was this week. first off, it started with canada day! then on monday, my mom and dad and i drove down to drumheller to visit the royal tyrell museum. dinosaurs sure are rad. plus i learned that north america used to have camels and lions and stuff, before the last ice age or something. wow! maybe i knew that, but i had forgotten. my very favorite part was the giant beaver statue. i guess there used to be super-huge beavers here, but they are all dead now. beavers are swiftly becoming one of my favorite animals.

after the royal tyrell, we drove to fort mcleod and stayed at a bed and breakfast. they had some giant pinecones.

on tuesday we went to head-smashed-in buffalo jump. it was pretty neat, and laid out really well. plus this super cute native boy came up to me and asked if i had any questions, but his cuteness made me nervous and i couldn't really think of a question because, hello, i work in a native cultural arts museum and i already knew what most of the artifacts were. frick. i get nervous around cute boys so i end up with all the creepy ones in the world having crushes on me. anyway, then we drove through longview (where i stopped to get my favorite beef jerky!) and by eden valley (one of the reserves i worked on a few summers ago) on our way to canmore.

my dad's brother has this super unbelievable condo in canmore, so we stayed there a few days. i bought some super hot boiled wool from this amazing quilting store in town, and i am going to use it for appliques for my wallets. i also bought a quilt pattern, because i am going to make another one for myself soon. i went in the hot tub at the condo a whole lot. kelsey came over from calgary on thursday, and the four of us went whitewater rafting on the kananaskis river. it was just a "beginner" trip, but it was so, so enjoyable. we vowed to never go canoeing again, because rafting is so much more fun/easy. it was apparently the nicest day they've had for rafting in the last two years. kelsey and i might go back to canmore later in the summer to go caving and rafting.

later kelsey and i went longboarding. it was really nice, but it's pretty hilly where we were, and we are too sucky to go down even slight declines, and too weak to go up even slight inclines. so basically it all just turned into a street lugeing session down a wide quiet residential road hill. i think i am going to buy some protective gear and do that more often.

yesterday i came back to edmonton and kaylin and i hung out for a bit. we went to watch the street performers at churchill square. i like that she is as introverted as me, if not more.