Hunting for Gems

My youngest has a thing for pretty rocks. Not that I can blame her. She loves all things sparkly or pretty when it comes to rocks, gems, crystals, agates, etc, so when Erik suggested we gift her a trip to Phillipsburg for her birthday, I knew he had a great idea. Phillipsburg is a little town about an hour away from Missoula and has a history rich in mining. You can go visit old mine sites, which is cool, but you can also try your hand at mining. I knew Kera would love a chance to find her own "jewels" and I figured it would be a fun family day.

When we got to Phillipsburg the first thing we did was drive about four miles up into the mountain to see Granite Ghost Town. We walked around up there and looked at the deserted buildings and mine facilities.

It's pretty impressive to think there were thousands of folks living and working up here almost 150 years ago. The fact that parts of the buildings are still standing is pretty cool.

I love Erik's shirt. 

We had some great views of the mountains that Erik plays on and even the Discovery Ski area there to the left.

Enjoying the view, emptying shoes of rocks.

Erik and Kera were looking for cool rocks.

Family picture thanks to the timer mode and our trunk!

So, after we explored up there for a bit, we headed into the town of Phillipsburg for some lunch. We stopped at a pretty cool little place called Doe's Soda Fountain and Restaurant. They made a pretty mean burger and fries. Kera got a small ice cream cone with her lunch which she loved, she shared bites w/ Erik and Lindsay who loved it as well. I thought it was kinda cool that they had a little Nebraska Husker sign in the corner, obviously someone there is a fan!

After lunch we went off in search of a place to hunt for gems. There are basically three places you can buy a bag of dirt and "mine" it for gems, two in town and one up in the mine. We decided to see what the one in town offered by Opal Mountain Gems. We bought two bags of dirt, one geared more towards the kids and one that boasted blue gems. 

What you did was wash some of your rocks, then sort through it on a table. We probably worked on washing and sorting for a good hour, maybe two. 

The girls really enjoyed it and they would get so excited when they found something cool. It was pretty fun to watch them getting into it.

After we were done sorting through all of our dirt/rocks, we took our finds up to the jewelry shop and they sorted them for us into rocks, faceted gems and flawed gems. We found quite a variety of gems and stones, and also quite a few plain ol' rocks. It was pretty cool.

After we were done mining, we were pretty hot and sweaty so we mosied up to the Sweet Palace , which is kind of like a huge, overgrown candy store. They had the largest selection of taffy that I've ever seen. We all picked a few things to nibble during the drive home. 

It was a really fun family day and I think Kera did love finding gems for her birthday. If you're in the area it's definitely worth an afternoon of your time to check it out and do some mining of your own.

8 Years

On Father's Day exactly 8 years ago, this sweet baby joined our family

and made it complete. 

She was such a sweet, even-tempered baby. And her sleep, boy she has loved her sleep since the start!

And when she wasn't sleeping, she was all eyes...

I am so grateful that she and Lindsay have each other as their first and best friends.

And that we get to have her as a daughter--she'll always be our "baby" even as she gets older.

It's hard to believe that she's already 8 years old, when it seems like just yesterday she was toddling around, playing with her potty training Elmo.

She is just simply a joy and I'm so grateful God entrusted us with her as a daughter. 

Happy Birthday Kera, I love you!

What a difference a year makes.

Today was the last day of 2nd and 4th grades for my girls.

Lindsay was very excited, but Kera was feeling kind of bittersweet about the whole thing. Lindsay didn't really enjoy school this year, but Kera loved it.

It's kind of amazing to me how truly different my children are from each other. Another thing that amazes me is how much they have both changed and grown during the past school year.

First day of school, Sept 2011

Last day of school, June 2012

They have both very obviously grown a ton in height. Look at how much closer Lindsay's head is to the door window now than last year! And then of course, their hair is way longer. I think it's kinda funny that Kera is wearing the same sweatshirt on both days. But in addition to the growth you can see, I think they have broth grown in other ways too. 

First day of 4th grade 2011

Lindsay had a full year, not only did she make a huge jump academically (not just her, it's typical of 4th grade here) but she has learned a lot about how to deal with social situations that she hadn't encountered before. Thinks like how gossip spreads like wildfire, how to resolve friend conflicts, how to deal with difficulties with authorities, developing respect for others and the importance of honesty. She also learned some fun things like the benefit to saving your allowance (She bought herself an android tablet fairly recently), how to play the recorder and how to ride a bike w/ shifting gears. It's been a very full year for her and I'm sure she's ready for a relaxing summer.

First day of 2nd grade 2011

 Kera had a pretty full year as well. This was the year she really fell in love with reading. Trips to the library last summer were almost torturous for her because she wanted to read chapter books, but everything seemed too hard or not interesting. I have a feeling this summer will be different because she's reading chapter books like a champ and has discovered what kind of books she likes. Her spelling has improved by leaps and bounds thanks to extra work she did each week with another 2nd grade teacher. And she's adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers! Besides academics, Kera also learned this year about asserting herself and a little more how to deal with friend troubles. And of course I can't forget that this was the year she learned how to play the piano! She loved nearly every minute of school this year, and her teacher said some awfully nice things about her as well the other day. I teared up a little today when saying goodbye to her. 

Kera and her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Holden

I can't believe another school year is over and that now I have kids in 3rd and 5th grade! They are growing up entirely too quickly. I'm definitely going to enjoy my summer of hanging out with my little girls while they are still little.

My little pianist

Kera has been taking piano lessons since the fall. She's practiced almost exclusively on her cheap-o little keyboard, with some random time on my folks' baby grand and of course her weekly piano lessons on a real piano. I've told her that if she wants to continue playing piano and really likes it, we'll think and talk about investing in a real piano. She had a few moments this year when she wanted to quit, but that was only because she wanted a free afternoon to play. Otherwise, she practices without complaint and loves going to her lessons.

Last night was her recital. She's been practicing for weeks and was not nervous at all about playing in front of us. It probably helps that the recital was going to be just her and the other little girl taking lessons from Miss Jan playing for their family in the other girl's home. Pretty low key and casual. Erik's folks drove down from Big Arm to be able to be there, which was cool. Especially because I completely forgot my camera and the only reason I have pictures is because my mother-in-law took them! 

Miss Jan introducing the girls and talking a little bit about teaching them

Kera was first, she played her favorite song, "Quiet River" and did a great job.

Kera's second song was a duet with Miss Jan. I believe that song was called "Love Somebody".

I have no clue what Kera's third and final song was called, but she did a great job playing that one too.

If you look closely you will see that she was concentrating, which is evidenced by her tongue sticking out just a wee bit.

The little girls glad to be done posing for a picture with their wonderful teacher, Miss Jan.

After they were done performing, we milled around and had some coffee, tea and cookies. Kera and Juju kept migrating back to the piano where they would play random little bits of music. Pretty cute, I must say. I wouldn't be surprised to see a duet of the little girls next year.

Lindsay and her friend Dani, who is Juju's older sister.

Hairdo's

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but the girls and I are growing out our hair. I'm doing it because one of my goals is to grow my hair out long enough to donate. I've talked to my hairdresser about how to best do this and keep my hair healthy. I know it will probably be a 2 year project to get my hair long enough and I'm ready (I think!). The girls are growing their hair out just for now, they are very likely to change their minds tomorrow. 

One of the things I've been trying to do is research different things to do with our hair as it gets longer. Basically all that means is I peruse Pinterest for cute hairstyles and pin them. One of these days I need to actually remember to pull those up when I'm doing my hair and actually use those ideas. We recently had the opportunity to attend a bridal shower that was Audrey Hepburn themed. I googled appropriate hairstyles thinking that the girls would look oh so cute w/ a Audrey Hepburn hairdo.

Lindsay was playing with a friend during the time Kera and I were primping for the shower, so she missed out on a hairdo. Actually she didn't want the same one as Kera, so she just got a ponytail anyways. Kera got this cute updo/twist thing.

Her hair was barely long enough to stay in the twist, so I used about a billion bobby pins.

And poor thing has thin hair like her mom, so there wasn't much volume to it.

But she LOVED it and I had fun styling her hair. 

I did a similar style in my hair but completely forgot to take pictures! :)