We celebrated Dad’s birthday meal the night before since we would be out late on his birthday. We had a great meal and I even ate a buffalo steak!
E and I even rode our bikes down to the store and bought pinecones that change the campfire colors. I played not he cell-phone as the fire got going.
Green and blue flames!
We were up early on Dad’s birthday and wet for a walk. We were surprised that the walk went to the Buffalo Safari Jeep rides.
We had our own private Jeep and an entertaining driver.
We were able to go off the main roads and see the buffalo and calves in the fields.
We also saw many more pronghorn.
We drove up to one of the animal salt licks and SO many buffalo there in the area. Many had calves and 1-2 year old bison as well.
This little calf was just getting his horn buds!
We drove to the highest point in the park and viewed the expanse of the park. It is a HUGE park.
Back to the trails.
We saw a mama and baby pronghorn. They were so cute. The baby was very small, about cat sized.
Even the donkeys had babies!
After the safari ride we toured the old homestead of a South Dakota poet laureate.
We drove a twisty road up to the Needles. This tunnel we had to fold in the mirrors on the truck to get though.
We also stopped with our carrots and apples and fed the donkeys. These were the only animals in the park you were allowed to feed.
We stopped at a fort structure on the way out of the park. During the gold rush this was built to keep the gold searchers safe from the native americans.
We drove back to Mammoth Site for an AtlAtl class. We learned about the history and functions of the atlatl. Then we got to practice throwing at targets.
Mom killed the short faced prehistoric bear.
It was really weird to throw an atlatl but I eventually got the hang of it.
I did well enough to get my certificate at the end.
Up next was an advanced paleontology class. We listed to all the instructions and then were given different grids to dig in.
Daddy had the outside one.
I had one in the middle and was having a hard time finding anything with my test holes.
Finally I found a speck of something white and then kept digging. It ended up being a vertebrate of a mammoth.
We learned how to cast an object and how to remove it from the dirt for transportation.
I helped a group of teenage girls dig out around a giant mammoth femur.
Back to my bone. I did a great job uncovering and making a pedestal for it. 
We had an amazing time celebrating Dad’s birthday and learning all about the atlatl and hot to properly be a paleontologist.