at the museum

Sorry I didn't get this put up last night but there was just too much going on.  So back to our visit to the Museum of the Rockies yesterday morning.

That's Big Mike in the front. Of course the first thing we headed for was the dinosaur display, complete with sound. Most of the fossils in this show were found around here and the foremost expert on dinosaurs, Jack Horner, is a local.

Then we strolled through the Indian displays (no photos allowed) and on into the display of 19th century sheep and cattle ranchers' lives, complete with their wagons, implements, and great photographs. These beautiful baskets were in this section.

Next was a stunning collection of contemporary furniture made by artists from Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. The craftsmanship was so beautiful. I particularly liked this "dressing table" made of cedar, juniper, euclapytus woods with carved elk horn knobs on the lower drawers and on the doors. The two doors swing open to reveal a mirror.

This gem is a portable fly tying box with scads of tiny drawers for all the necessary gear.

We moved on to an interactive show, supposedly for children, about both the construction of and the destruction of buildings. Andrew had a great time constructing a trestle while I watched a video about how to blow up old or damaged buildings.

No pre-Thanksgiving celebration would be complete without yet another trip to the market, which we did.  Then home for lunch, reading, resting until it was time to go out to dinner at Ted's for bison whatever.  Delicious, as usual.

Today has been spent in the kitchen, baking pies (Mr. C and I), prepping the stuffing (Cait and Andrew ~ it doesn't go in the bird), cranberry sauce (Cait).  The dogs have done a great job of hoovering up anything that drops.  The bird is thawing in the garage, the brussel sprouts, carrots and yams are ready.  Mike will make the cornbread to add to Cait's stuffing tomorrow, along with a pecan pie. 

The bad news in all of this is that Alex is down with a very bad cold and has opted to stay in Walla Walla and not drive 8 hours is what is turning out to be not very great weather.  In fact, we are expecting snow tonight.   It appears we are not going to have everyone together has we had so hoped.  But the important thing is that she recover!

To everyone, a very Happy Thanksgiving.  I hope that you are spending it with those you love ~ family and friends.  We certainly are!