Around 8:30AM we got three and one half year old Aurora up from sleep. She had enjoyed a full day of celebration with us New Years Day and was pretty sleep as we got her car seat mounted in the van as we prepared for an all day journey down to Tompkins and back Friday. With her grandmother seated beside her we had to make a quick stop at Macdonalds before we left Regina and her dad and uncle went inside and we sat in the warm van with the outside temperatures right around -32ºC. By now she was wide awake and discussing the stop with her grandmother, then she said in the tiny little girl voice of her's, "This is going to be fun."

Little did she know we were about to drive into a full blown blizzard with dangerously low temperatures, snow and blowing snow. We didn't know that either until we began encountering the storm just West of Swift Current. By the time we got to Tompkins it was a serious storm. We visited for the afternoon with family and Aurora thoroughly enjoyed the new surrounds and loads of toys from her great aunt's grand daughters.

At 5:30 we were back on number one highway heading east toward Swift Current, Moose Jaw and Regina. There was a roll over just east of Tompkins ditched vehicles and recovery equipment at several places between Swift Current and Moose Jaw then between Regina and Moose Jaw a Semi had pulled out onto the highway and started off west on an eastbound lane just before he put the whole unit upright in the median.

Though the weather was nasty we had a good driver with Aurora's father at the helm and can not report a single close call.

Westbound during the morning travel Aurora had chattered away to her grandmother, played games sang songs and in general made the best of her time. Then in the storm eastbound she borrowed her father's iPod on which she played games, drew pictures and watched a movie. Never a moment of boredom or a single complaint about the eight hours travel time.

There is something to be learned from this. At three and a half the world is teeming with unknowns, experiences that will be fresh and things to learn from. The keen mind of a child is hell bent on learning as much as it can and the whole learning process is wrapped up in the simple concept that "This is going to be fun."