Panning for Gold and Notes for Daddy

Last week we visited Reed's Gold Mine.  The museum inside had lots of mining equipment and gold coins

We went into the mine for a "self-tour". This was excellent advice because the "guided" tour lasts about 45 minutes inside the mine.  I have done this tour without kids and it's very interesting, but with kids - self-guided "run" through the mine took about 7 minutes. 

We also toured the stamp mill where they grind the ore.  It was very loud and again we lasted about 7 minutes.  Next, we were off to pan for gold.  This is the only thing that you pay for at Reed's gold mine.  It's $2 per pan and you have to be 8 to "pan" yourself.  So I bought 2 and the kids "helped" me pan for gold.  I didn't get any pictures of this because that panning is messy and heavy.  After 20 minutes on the first pan, we found this fleck:

Then, of course the second pan didn't have anything in it.  I would highly recommend that they sell these "flecks" to mothers so that each child can have their own fleck :).  We left with 1 fleck of gold and two crystal growing kits. 

We continued the week with notes on the driveway to welcome Joe home for Father's Day weekend.

Mixing our crystal growing kits. 

These take 2 weeks to form.

And we painted some pictures out back.  I can't remember where I originally saw this idea but had been dying to try it.  It was great because they were messy OUTSIDE and the sun dried the pictures very quickly.

Happy Father's Day to Joe the best Daddy ever!