Crow Fair Pics

Last Sunday I was invited to spend the day with a family I know that was camping at Crow Fair. I have never gotten to experience it that way. I have seen the dancing and watched the parades and eaten fry-bread. But hanging out at the camp was a fabulous way to experience the "Tee-Pee Capitol of the World." Here are some pictures I took while I was there.





This is Miss Crow Nation, the daughter of a friend of a friend.












I thought this woman was incredibly beautiful. I call this "calm in the chaos." She stands so straight and tall in the midst of everyone else running around.












A full pageant of color. This doesn't even begin to show what the full grand entry looks like.







This is a view of the tee-pees across from us as we watched the parade on Sunday morning.




There were tons of adorable small children in the grand entry and parade. There were even a few I delivered (no pictures of those though since it would be a HIPAA violation). I loved this mother-child pair.

2009 Worldwide PhotoWalk

2009_07_18 PhotoWalk

I participated in the Worldwide PhotoWalk today. I can submit two of the pictures that I took to the local competition and then the best one from the Billings group will be forwarded on to the international competition. The problem I have is that I am not sure which ones I should submit. I have linked to my Picasa Web album (just click on the picture of the geraniums) and I am hoping that my readers might help me decide which to submit. Just leave a comment regarding your two favorite pictures and I will see what the consensus is. FYI, I have not editted any of these pictures. This is how they came out of the camera. I am curious to see what you all think. Thanks in advance for your input.

Mountain Escape

After a couple of long weeks (did 4 deliveries and helped with a c-section all in the space of 10 days) I took a day off and ran away to the mountains. Visited some of my favorite places on earth. Here are a few photos.

Looking down the valley from Vista Point on the Beartooth Highway.

At Vista Point there was a big contingent of Germans on Harleys. Had to take this picture for my sister.
My dog, Dot, enjoying some time out of the truck. This is just before the Montana-Wyoming border where we went for a walk and got really wet in melted snow.


The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

A bald eagle, presumably feeding its young, near the road in Yellowstone.


I could upload all sorts of other pictures, but this is plenty for now. I don't have pictures of the fabulous dinner I had last night at Chico Hot Springs; nor can pictures convey the relaxation of just getting away, even if it is for only 36 hours.

Small Town Life

So for only the second time in my life I actually won something today. Little Big Horn Days is going on here ("celebration" of Custer's Last Stand) and one of the staple events is the bed races (more on that in a minute). Prior to the bed races there was a trivia contest where the M.C. called out questions and the first person to shout out the answers won a gift certificate to a local business. The first question was "what is the motto on the Montana state flag?" The answer is "Oro y Plata" meaning gold and silver. I shouted it out and was actually the first. The embarassing thing was that I had to go out in the middle of the street and give my name and pronouce the motto again. There I was in front of hundreds of people (several of whom are patients) trying not to embarass myself. I did fairly well and walked away with a gift card to Pamida. Kinda cool. Not really something that happens in bigger cities.
The best part of the evening was the bed races. I don't know how they got started or if it is something that is done anywhere else, but it is a heap of fun. The rules are that you have a bed on wheels, one person rides and two push the bed down the block turn around and come back. The beds are usually decorated and the pushers and riders dress up. The winner this year was from the local nursing home. Last year the boys pushing had a hard time because the scrub pants they were wearing kept falling down while they were trying to run. This year they only wore the scrubs for the "best in show" judging then stripped back down to their shorts and t-shirts in order to run. It worked much better that way. I highly recommend coming to visit out here just to see such silly small town entertainment. We have other things too, but this is one of my favorites. Photo credits to my cousin's husband.

Big Horn Canyon Adventure

Here are some photos of the Big Horn Canyon. Like I said, nothing will really do it justice. I highly recommend you see it for yourself if you have not. Also for anyone interested in geology this is better than the Grand Canyon because you can get right up close and personal with the rocks.This is a photo looking towards Yellowtail Dam. I think it is the third largest concrete hydroelectric dam in the country (I could be wrong, but that is what my brother told me). The water is quite high right now (5ft. above full).
This sort of gives you an idea of the geology.Here some cool spires on top of the canyon rim. It also looks cool in black and white. Still you need to see this in real life. It will knock your socks off.