You Eat Gypsum.

I went to the White Sand Dunes. This sand is from a rock called gypsum. I listened to the Ranger movie and it is as soft as my fingernail. The wind breaks the gypsum down into little bits and then it gets smaller like cornflakes and then smaller like rice  then it sort of feels like soft powder. I closed my eyes and touched it and I was pretending I was petting a kitten! 

I saw what gypsum looks like. I touched sand that was dry. When I dug down a little bit, the sand was a little bit stuck together and so I know it rained here not too long ago.  I was surprised to find out that gypsum is in foods and drinks and toothpaste. I read a sign that said people eat 28 pounds of gypsum in our whole life in our foods! 28 pounds is a lot. My dog does not weigh 28 pounds and 28 pounds is more than half of how much I weigh. 

I learned that living creatures in these White Sand Dunes have adapted to living here by turning sand colored over a long time. I already know from a long time ago that adapted means changing a tiny bit at a time over a long time. So, these lizards used to be dark but them slowly over time babies and then the next babies and then the next babies were lighter and lighter. I did not get to see these animals or insects in the sand dunes but I did see pictures of them. 

I climbed up the sand hills and ran down, rolled down, disced down, and I wrestled with Mama and then Daddy. I liked it when one of them would push me away or yank on my legs and I would tumble down the hill. 

I earned a Junior Ranger badge but I have to mail in my work because I did not leave until after the Ranger was done with her work. She will mail my badge to me. I had to do that one other time when the Ranger ran out of badges. That was in South Dakota, I think, but I get it confused with North Dakota so I am not sure.