Your Favorite Passion

Hello hello! So, we just got back from a 3 day camping/gold panning trip to Bear River. Hubby had Friday off as did MoMo (she only has a 4 day school week) and we decided to let Big R skip school. First week of school, no homework, yet. Anyway, we packed up and headed out. We got there around 1pm and set up camp, though we aren't as elaborately outfitted as some people. No shower set up or anything. LOL The area is so nice. Trees, water and wild blackberries and grapes! The kids started right in eating blackberries. The grapes weren't ripe. Right off of our campsite was a path that led to a sort of grotto in the trees. A creek flowed down through the trees and bushes until it joined up with the river. This is where the creek came down.
And this is the view down the river as the sun was setting.
We set right to work panning for gold. Hubby had been there a couple weeks before panning with some buddies from work and brought home some gold. So we knew there was definitely gold there and we wanted to find it! Here are some shots of the kids trying their hand at panning.
And one of MoMo in the water. It was cold!
But, actually that's not why she's making this face here. She was just being silly and gave me this face instead of a smile. But it makes a good cold water picture, doesn't it? LOL
And we found gold! Big R actually panned the largest piece that we found. After that, he was pretty much done panning. After the first bit where the kids panned some mostly we had a system where Hubby would dig up some material and classify it (weed out any large rocks) and then pass it to me to pan any gold out. We did pretty well. Flakes and tiny bits in almost every single pan full of stuff. Nothing too big, not the nugget I was hoping for, but gold nonetheless. The kids (and occasionally hubby and I) splashed around in the water and ate berries.
All too soon, it was time to load up and head home. We were bummed to have to go but we brought a bucketful of stuff to pan home with us. So, here's our little gold pile.
Hubby is now seriously infected with gold fever. He is ready to go back to pan some more. Well, anyway, that's our latest adventure. If anyone wants to come visit, we'll be happy to take you out panning. We'll even let you use our gold pan!