Other things to do

My nephew is boy-genius when it comes to dinosaurs. If that kid doesn't become a paleontologist, I'll eat my shorts. He's been spouting off the five-syllable names of every dinosaur that ever walked the face of this earth since he was about 4 or 5, and he knows darned near everything that there is to know about them. Seriously, when that kid starts talking dinosaurs, everybody in the room - adults and kids - just sits back in awe to listen.

He's turning 10 this year, and my sister decided that it was time for him to try going to summer camp. Instead of a dude ranch or a sports camp, she decided to send him to the camp run at the dinosaur museum in Drumheller. (For the non-Albertans reading this, Drumheller is an area of Alberta that is chalk full of dinosaur fossils.)

His dad dropped him off a week ago. Despite some second guessing on the way down (maybe he didn't want to spend a week away from his parents and pesky brother... maybe he might get lonely) we're told that he hopped out of the van, gave a brief wave goodbye and then disappeared before his dad even finished signing him in.

A week later, my sister drove down to pick him up, and barely survived the ride home. He hadn't showered or changed clothes since they'd dropped him off.

Same pants

Same shirt

Same socks

Same underwear.

The kid hadn't even bothered to change into pajamas at night. The counsellors said that he went from camp activity to camp activity throughout the day until he crashed in his bunk each night. Somebody would cover him up with a blanket, and he'd wake up the next morning and start again.