It's a sad, sad time of the year around our house. Summer is dying and it's time to trudge our butts back to school. Let's have a little round-up of our latest adventures. Shall we start with our mining day?
I got the bright idea of going to a "diamond" mine, located about 125 miles from home. I enticed the children by telling them that we would "have to" stay overnight in a hotel - it gets them every time. The Lawyer stayed home to "take care of the dogs."
Come to find, my sister Anne had plans to go to the diamond mine on the same day. Here she is with her hubby Jeff (holding a *big* find!), my brother Tom, and her daughter, Colleen.
We started off strong and giddy - whacking random rocks with our hammers.
Elizabeth was waiting all summer to go to the diamond mine. She was sorely disappointed when we got there and all she saw was a quarry. I suspect she anticipated that the roads would be paved in sparkling diamonds. She worked the hardest at pounding on the rocks. The crystals we found were so small that I had to buy each of the kids a little box with a magnifier to put their tiny crystals in - made them look much more impressive!! We left after a few hours - it was H*O*T and we were cranky.
The hotel pool turned out to be a high point!
Before we left the mine, my brother in law, Jeff told me about a place on the way home, called Fort Ricky. He said they had been there 10 years ago and their kids had loved it - a little nature reserve/petting zoo/splash park. So the next morning, off we went to find it. I believe not much has changed in the past 10 years, except they closed the splash park! It was kind of run down and tired looking.
One of the first things we saw was a woman carrying around a boa constrictor! The kids were very curious but Frances would do nothing more than give it a little poke. Ana and Elly petted it and asked a lot of questions.
There was a little tortoise corral that was quite exciting...... kind of
We fed the greedy deer and they were our friends for life. That gave Lewis the creeps.
Our visit ended with what I could only imagine was a germ infested ball pit. Who needs a spray park when you have a junky little playground??!
Well, I guess we can cross "miners" off the list of possible future careers. Stay tuned for the gripping tale of our near expulsion from African Lion Safari, coming up next.
3 comments:
The kids look so happy. So does your adult family. I love the turtles. They look like they are chillin' in the sun.
Poor disillusioned Elizabeth! She must have really believed the stories of the land of milk and honey, and the streets paved with gold. As soon as she can read to that level, I am going to buy her a copy of "The Little Princess." I KNOW she will relate to it, as I did when I was young and disillusioned too. Of course, fifty years later, I am STILL disillusioned. . .
No one said there'd be snake petting. I'm outta here
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