Sunday, July 18

Family Filled Weekend

Walt's dad planned on visiting sometime this summer and it worked out that his visit coincided with Emma Grace's first birthday party. We decided to invite Walt's sister, Emma, up for the occasion too.

It was great to have family in town over the weekend.

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One day we drove to Sutter Gold Mine, which is about an hour south of where we live. Tours are given of the mine that was still a working mine not too long ago.

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It's located in gold country. The entrance can be seen from Hwy 49 if you know where to look.

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We rode an "alligator" down into the mine. My seat faced backwards and it was weird seeing the light from the entrance get smaller and smaller and finally non-existent.

Down inside we sat in the safe room, which is built in case of a cave in, and learned a few things about mining back during the gold rush.

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Then we got a tour through part of the tunnels. This rock here is actually part of a fault line. We were 450-550 feet under the surface so we wouldn't have even felt an earthquake had there been one.

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The tour was an hour long from start to finish. It was very interesting to get a glimps into what mining is like now and back during the gold rush. Geologists have estimated that the mine we were in still contains a million ounces of gold.

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And what would a gold mine tour be without a little gold panning and gem mining? The kids never get tired of those little troughs of water.

Chuck and Kiele came to our house to get in some more visiting time.

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Kiele stayed overnight with us. We took the kids to the river to get out of the house for a little bit. The water was cold but the kids didn't mind.

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This was the first time in many, many years that all three kids have been with their dad at the same time. I think they all really enjoyed it.

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And they had to end with the "silly face" picture at the kids' request.

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