Haircuts and History

On Sunday, Amy somehow talked Hailey into a haircut.

Talking Hailey into a haircut is like talking a crocodile into giving you his tooth.

Permission to play games on Amy's phone may have helped seal the deal.

 

Makayla agreed to play on the ipad just to be fair.

 



 Knowing how long it may be before Hailey agreed to another trim, Amy snipped off several inches.

Hopefully, this will help make morning blowouts quicker.

 

 

After it was over, Hailey's hair was still 12 inches longer than mine has ever been.

We declared today "Learn About History Day". We started out at Yellowstone County Museum, located at the airport. It's a small museum, inside a log cabin.

 

There are a variety of eclectic displays, including this beaver and beaver hat.

We also examined an old camp stove set-up

 

and a branding iron explanation, along with a video of an actual branding.



 

 

 Much of the museum is dedicated to American Indian artifacts.



 

 

There is quite a selection of shoes.



We'll take those in a size 3.

We also saw some pretty purses we'd like to borrow for the weekend.

Makayla likes the cradleboard display.

Hailey did NOT like the ingenious dog-propelled baby buggy. She was concerned for the overworked dog ("Is that why he's dead?")

The assorted toys are cool.

We passed a display of Liver Eatin' Johnson's rifles.  In a hundred years, I expect to see a display in a museum somewhere of Ice Cream Eatin' David's scoopers, or Weird Meat Eatin' Bob's knives and forks.

 

We aren't sure if this guy is sleeping, in a coma, or changing his oil. He didn't respond when we yelled at him.

 

 Trying out a saddle.

Makayla is NOT eating Hailey's hands here- she's terrified of the Indian and trying to hide.

 

I was so sure this conjoined calf would be chosen as the girl's favorite display.

It was for my kids.

Nope. Hailey and Makayla were gobsmacked by this diorama of Sacrifice Cliff.

Roadsideamerica.com describes it as "Sacrifice Cliff (or was it Skeleton Cliff?) is the place where in 1833 (or was it 1837?) a group of 16 (or was it 40?) Crow Indians rode their blindfolded horses over the side to satisfy the spirits and stop the smallpox epidemic killing most of the tribe."



 

I spent a good half hour answering questions like "Where are the girl Indians?" "Did their moms cry?" "Why didn't the horses climb back up?" "Why didn't they just go to the doctor?" 

 I finally talked them into leaving by promising to go home and read up on the whole story.

 

Next we visited Boothill Cemetery. This is the burial site of the citizens of Coulson, MT. Coulson is what Billings was called until 1855 or so. It earned the name "Boothill" because so many deaths were violent, happening to individuals who still had their boots on.

 

I don't believe Makayla was exactly grasping the idea of who was buried here.

She was rather unhappy when I couldn't identify which grave site was Pocahontas's or Jesus's. She simply did not want to hear they were buried elsewhere.

 

This butte across from the cemetery is one of the many rumored locations of Sacrifice Cliff.

I always like to end my time with Hailey and Makayla by spending some time running off excess energy before returning them to Amy. Hailey climbed to the top of an eight foot retaining wall and tried to scare me to death by scampering along the top. It pretty much worked.

 

There's Makayla, putting the nail in my coffin.



 

Whereby Stan Demonstrates How Not to Take a Vacation

Stan and I planned a grand trip to Portland this week.

We were anxious to see those Pearsons again.

 

 

We looked forward to the Portland Rose Garden

as well as other "Portland must" visits.

 

Before we left for Portland, I took the grandkids for one last fling at the local swimming mecca.

 

That's where I got The Call.

 

 

 

Stan was home, wanting to know when I was going to be home because he wanted to go somewhere.

We went home immediately and I suggested the emergency room. 

 I flung Stan over my shoulder, carried him down the stairs, tucked him into the car and we were off!

 

Ok, that part is maybe not quite right. It took Amy, me, Hailey, and Makayla to get Stan into the car.  When we got to the emergency room, they took one look at Stan and moved him to the front of the long line of ER vacationers. Then our vacation really started. They gave Stan a Be Happy Cocktail. Considering the agony he'd been in, this was magical stuff. This vacation is going to rock!

Perhaps some background information would be useful at this point. Stan has been having some ongoing issues with his joints. We visited a Rheumatologist, who took 12 vials of blood and did a thorough examination, and decided to withdraw fluid from Stan's painful knee and eject a steroid to help with the pain and swelling.

Three hours later, Stan was in such pain he could not bear it. ER tests revealed that his knee had become seriously infected.

 

Stan's vacation package includes a one a.m. visit with a competent surgeon--although Stan slept through the visit. Next he got this nifty leg warmer

and this fabulous bed for one. Which (and excuse me for whining) is lots more comfortable than the vacation accommodations they have extended to me.

Stan also gets room service anytime he wants it.

 

And the food is well....um.....yeah.

You know how when you go on vacation you always look for the perfect souvenir to take home? Stan chose this lovely PIC line which will allow him to dose up on antibiotics for the next 6 weeks.

Stan even got some special vacation visitors.

They were a little unnerved by his pre-vacation agony and were relieved to see their usual grandpa. Although he does seem a bit, well, loopy...

Dr. Hailey checked to make sure he wasn't getting too much of the Happy Juice stuff.

 

Hailey left some vacation reading material for Grandpa.

Stan got here on Tuesday and expects to be here a couple more days.

Oh, those crazy, lazy, hazy days of summer!

 

Some things to add:

The surgeon made a two inch vertical incision just below his knee and cleaned the infected area with antibiotics.

The doctors suspect his infection was caused by contaminated batch of steroids since his infection started so soon after his injection/appointment. They are trying to grow something in a petri dish from his knee and have asked the doctor to track down the vial he used for the injection.

We don't yet know what is causing his original issue of painful joints. We probably won't know for a couple of weeks when all the tests are back.

Stan is up and able to walk. He has some pain, but nothing like a few days ago.

He will hopefully be able to administer his own antibiotics through his PIC line at home. The other option is to go to the hospital twice a day for the next 6 weeks.

All things considered, we think Portland would have been funner.



A Couple of Great Artists.

Andy Warhol said, "In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

I recently came across this book in a thrift store. 

I like to visit thrift stores from time to time, just in case. 

I really like this book. It has lessons about well-known artists, along with art project ideas for kids. And Grandmas. All for a thrift store price of $1.

I visited the public library and found this book, geared toward kids. We read it together and found out all sorts of interesting things. (Did you know Warhol wore a wig? All this time I though Makayla had hair like Andy Warhol, and it turns out she just has hair like his wig.)

We also looked at several Google images of Warhol's work to get a feel for his style and colors.

Discovering Great Artists suggests taking a picture like this and having an adult trace the main features. Four times. Yeah, no.

I put Hailey's picture through photo2sketch, a free computer program that does the work for you.

Makayla went from this

to this. What did we do before the internet?

I made four copies of each sketch, and we set about coloring them using highlighter markers.

Since we are creating in the style of Warhol, we are going for the colorful look.

We glued the four pictures together for a masterpiece a la Warhol.

Hailey thought the style was so "hot" (her favorite word today) that she made a freehand Warhol.

Watch out world, we're about to take our fifteen minutes!