More Vacation Information

OK....I've gotten off track.....still reading "Breaking Dawn" -- I know, what is my problem? I should be done by now. Anyway, I've been asked to continue, so here it goes.

First, I need to back up. When we stopped at Gramma and Grampa Trammell's in Idaho, we saw how they had planted "a few trees".....

Gramma Fay bought a kiln so she had pottery for the girls to do. The loved it! She had a piece for me, but I'm waiting to enjoy that when the girls go to school.While on vacation, I had a lesson in trusting Hannah's instincts. When your child says they don't feel comfortable about something--trust them! I had this big idea that Hannah should drive while in Montana because when I was eleven, I was driving, even if it was just up the road to the cemetery. (yes, I grew up by a cemetary). So after we had been to Augusta, we stopped by the Sun River cemetary to pay our respects to loved ones.

I got out and said, "OK, Hannah, your turn to drive. It's tradition. Everyone in the family has driven up this road when they were eleven."

Hannah (eyes wide with fear): "Ummm....isn't that illegal?"

Me: "Yeah, but it's tradition; it'll be fine."

Hannah: "Ummmm....I don't think so. I don't want to."

Me: "Ahhhh...come on! It'll be fun."

Emily: "Momma, are you sure Hannah can drive?"

Me (not sure at all she can drive, but that's why it is called a lesosn, right?): "Sure! Come on, Hannah! I'll teach you!"

Hannah (taking small, tentative steps toward the Suburban): "Well, OK....but I don't think I should be doing this."

Me (ignorant as ever): "Nah, it'll fun!"

(Side note: notice how there is a street sign in the above photo? We NEVER had street signs when I was growing up--it was all landmark directions: "take left at the store, right at the bar, right at the post office, if you see some cows, you've gone too far." ahhhh, good times.)

Anyway, we got in the Suburban, Hannah behind the wheel. She adjusts her seat and we begin a lesson--this is the accelerator, this is the break....ya know, stop--go. We practice, we discuss what she is going to do and where she is going to go, then off she went.

She drove amazingly well up the two lane, gravel road. I gave the occasional nudge to the steering wheel to keep us out of the ditch, but otherwise, she maintained a slow, steady pace and did really well. So well, in fact, that driving us back to the cemetary where we had left Gramma Fay, Emily, and Abby, seemed like a good idea.

Wrong. Bad idea.

As we turned back onto the gravel road, an oncoming vehicle made her nervous to which I say, "Just pull over and stop; we'll let them go by." Well, it seems "pull over and stop" translated to "drive fast down the ditch." Stop meant go, red meant green, up was down, you name it--the universe was no longer in alignment and nothing made sense that poor girl. Once we were out of the ditch and I confirmed I had not wet myself, another vehicle came behind us. Once again like a dumbass, I said, "OK just stay stopped at the side and they'll go around us" which would have been a good idea if the oncoming vehicle was noticing that we were stopped! The oncoming van was going way too fast -- because that is what EVERYONE does on that road even though they shouldn't! Kinda like letting an eleven year old drive a big ol' Suburban. Anyway, the best I could do was pray and it worked, they finally notice we weren't moving and went around, spraying us with gravel, looking us over but not bothering to stop and see if we had a problem....which was very unlike Montanans. In Montana, I must say, people are very friendly. You can't drive down a small road and NOT be waved at----by ALL five fingers, the entire hand really.

Yes, you guessed it--Hannah's lesson was OVER, we switched drivers and with trembling hands, I drove us back to the cemetary--glad we weren't going to our final resting place!

So we both learned something that day: she learned how to drive and I learned to listen to a child's instincts--MY child's instincts--how the Spirit whispered in her ear, "you're mom is nuts; don't do it." She was listening: I wasn't. Bad mommy.

Less painful vacation reflections include the girls running through sprinklers, dinner out, and a visit to a museum, although that included some pain too. The museum attendant failed to mention that portions of the museum were closed already. She simply took our free admission token and sent us on our pointless way. When I discovered this I really wanted to beat her senseless with a souvenier, or at minimum, cuss her out, but I simply turned and left.

Here is Emily taking a Montana Shower--ha ha--I can make that joke since I'm a native.

This is Borrie's---Borrie's is a traditional style supper club and mmmmmmm....it is sooooo good. If you are ever in Great Falls (and technically, Borrie's is in Black Eagle), you must eat there.

Here is the aforementioned museum. It is the Charles M. Russell Museum. I looked up the following to explain who he is and why he is important to the State of Montana.
Charles M. Russell was born to moderate wealth. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Russell first came to Montana as a boy of 16 with a dream of becoming a real cowboy. He was so captivated with the West he chose to stay and fulfill his childhood fantasy.

During those first years in Montana, Russell received great encouragement from Jake Hoover, a mountain man who befriended him and took him under his wing. Hoover often shared his cabin with the young Charlie, sometimes providing food and shelter for months at a time. This friendship allowed Russell to experience the ways of the frontier life he would later portray so vividly in his paintings.

In 1882 Charlie landed a job as a wrangler on a cattle drive. He wrangled for eleven years, and while he was not known for being a good roper or rider, Russell established a local reputation as the affable (some said bone lazy) cowboy who loved to draw and knew how to tell a great story. As a self-taught artist, his sketches were crude but reflected an observant eye, a feel for animal and human anatomy, a sense of humor and a flair for portraying action - all hallmarks of Russell's mature art.

Throughout his years on the range, he witnessed the changing of the West. He saw the bitter winter of 1886-87 end the cattleman's dominion on the northern plains. The days of free grass and unfenced range were ending and, for Russell, the cowboy life was over by 1893.

Prior to Russell's marriage to Nancy Cooper, in 1896, only a few of his works had been reproduced nationally. Although he was unsure of his ability to earn a living with his art, Nancy Russell recognized her husband's talent and promise, and provided the business sense and drive that eventually made her unambitious husband one of America's most popular artists. Success did not come easily for the Russells. Montana offered few opportunities for art sales, which eventually led them to New York where contact was established with other artists interested in Western themes. At the very time Frederic Remington was getting out of illustration to concentrate on painting, Russell secured illustrating assignments and began to gain exposure through exhibitions and press coverage. His emergence in the big time art world came in 1911 with a one man show at a New York gallery, followed three years later by an exhibition in London.

Charles Russell felt deeply the passing of the West, the most evident theme of his art. This sense of loss touched him with an emotional immediacy. He was haunted by youthful fantasies, memories of what once was and by the evidence of change that surrounded him as an everyday reality. His work reflected the public demand for authenticity, but also the soul of a romantic.


There it is: all that you never wanted to know about Charles M. Russell....oh, and Great Falls has a high school named for him called CMR High School.


What disappointed me most about the museum was how we couldn't see his original home and original studio; those were the closed places the attendant failed to tell us about. argh! But I guess I can't see that we went with it being "pointless." I achieved what I wanted--I really wanted to take the girls to a museum to see the differences in art styles and medium. Just so happened that other artists' work were on display at the museum, too. The girls have had ongoing bickering about art --you know, whaaa, "her's is better than mine!" stuff......and I really wanted them to see how art can look completely different and both be completely beautiful.


We also went to the "Pet and Doll" parade. Girls loved it. While waiting for the parade to start in downtown Great Falls, we learned the following:


(total accident that Emmy is in this picture, seemingly having her leg gnawed off by a prehistoric creature....kinda funny though....)

I will close out today's entry with a view in Great Falls. This view is from nearby a place my dad worked many, many, many years ago.