Aug 4, 2006

7:05 Drop off. Not asleep. Ariel sat in the high chair while I finished up making waffles.

7:30 Enthusiastic cereal eating.

8:00 Crib nap

9:00 We all (that being Me, Jeremy, Alex, Adam and Ariel) left for our Fabulous Adventure™ of the day. But first, we had to run some errands.

9:10 My first errand was going to the post office. I ended up in line behind a very old, grouchy woman. She wanted to mail 30 packages (which she didn't have on her) media mail. So they had to weigh her one package, then figure out how to give her the easiest amount of stamps for the rest (which turned out to be 2 $.80 stamps each) while the old, grouchy lady yelled at just about everyone but me, as I was trying to blend in with the wall. It took forever.

9:25 Second quick errand - Starbucks. And FYI Crissy, Ted says his last day is next Friday. Soon we won't know anyone there anymore.

9:30 Finally we were on the way to our adventure. We (the we that is me) drove up to Idaho Springs. It was at this point I started to realize that Crissy is much better suited to Fabulous Adventures™ than Jeremy. I tried to talk to him about my future business plans for my almost photography business and he looked like he wanted to simultaniously fall asleep AND jump out of the car. Maybe because my business plans require spending money before making it?

10:30 Arrive at our adventure (where Ariel finished the rest of her breakfast bottle). The Argo Gold Mine and Mill:



I finally found a solution to child care!



First, we were told about the mining operation and watched a slide show. They also passed around some rocks and I made sure that Ariel touched the fossilized dino poop. Just so I could put that in the blog. We also handled a gold nugget, which we estimated to be worth several thousands of dollars.

Next, we went outside for some machine demonstrations. Both Ariel and Alex hated the drill. Alex told me it made his body hurt, and Ariel burst into tears:



Then they drove us up the hill in an old school bus and we had a self-guided tour.

We went into this old gold mine:


It didn't go back very far and it was very well lit:


Alex insisted he was wearing his hard hat properly:


Ariel didn't have much to say about the mine:


We got to see the tunnel entrance. It ran 4 miles to Central City and drained the mines of water.


And then onto the mill, where they ground up rocks and ore to extract the precious metals:


We were self-touring near another family, who had a 6 year old boy named R-e-e-c-e, Amy :)

If Adam could have turned this drill on, he would have. He settled for using it like a jungle gym. Alex kept his distance:



And I took this display case of UV-light rocks for Marcus:


12:30 We ended up back at the mine office and had a picnic lunch. Ariel slowly drank a bottle.

1:00 After lunch, we went back to pan for gold. We didn't really know what we were doing, but we did end up with a couple little flakes. The real process bored Adam, so he dumped rocks into the trough and then scooped them out again. He also mananged to soak himself, which is too bad since he had be accident free all day.



1:30 We still had some time, so we drove up to Echo Lake. Adam slept, and I think Ariel was sleeping but was awake when we got there. So Alex, Ariel and I went down to the lake:

Ariel is not wearing pants because I forgot to change her diaper and realized her pants were wet when we got in the car.




Alex liked looking at the ducks, who were suprisingly friendly and seemed to be expecting something of us:


Echo Lake:


We opted out of driving up Mt. Evans since Adam was still asleep and we didn't want to pay the fee. We (the we that is me) drove back over Squaw Pass. Here's one of the views from the road:



2:30 We stopped at the Bergan Park McDonald's because Ariel had been talking for a while and I thought she might be hungry. She took a long time to drink 3 oz, long enough that Alex had time to eat an entire ice cream cone. Adam was still asleep.

3:00 Drive back home.

3:05 Stop so Alex could pee in the grass.

3:06 Continue driving home. Ariel amused Alex by sucking on her toes. Adam slept. Jeremy slept some too. Before he dozed off, he commented that he didn't know how I do this everday. I'm not sure how many more Fabulous Adventures™ he'll go on, but I'm sure he's even more inspired to finding a new job.

3:40 Home. Ariel finished her bottle. Adam finally woke up and broke his accident-free streak.

4:00 Pick up.