Panning for Gold

Colorado is famous for it's start of the Gold rush.  Miners flocked here before they continued west towards California.  Argo was one of the most extensive and productive gold mines in Colorado until it closed in the 1940's due to a flood in one of the mine shafts.

We see this beast every time we drive by on I 70 heading towards Utah.  We thought it was about time we stopped and toured it.

 Our first mine we got to go inside of.

 Hard hats required.

 Even though this mine is not worked any longer, there is still gold and other precious minerals running through the mountain.  We got to see several veins as we toured the mine.

 There was a statue of a big Horn sheep up by the mine entrance.  Apparently eddy, the big horn sheep to the left...who is real and wild, likes to come down the mountain to visit his friend the statue.  

 Anya in front of the Argo tunnel or mine that is no longer safe to enter.  The water from the closing flood still drains out of this tunnel today.

 Inside the Mill where all the gold and minerals were processed.

 The highlight of the tour was that we got to learn how to and actually pan for gold.

 Cora found gold!

 Eureka! I see some gold flecks!

The boys lost interest in panning pretty quickly.  They found these burro statues much more interesting!

This was a very fun stop on our Colorado spring break weekend of fun!

Spring Break 2015: First stop GoKarts in Denver!

Spring Break!

I love spring break, it get me through the rest of the school year.  For the past several years we have done elaborate spring breaks: Disneyland in 2011, Italy in 2012, Spain in 2013, DisneyWorld in 2014,  so this year was a bit more low key.  Matt wasn't able to get any time off work to go anywhere very far away.  However, he did have a four day weekend the very beginning of spring break, so we decided to get out and explore a little bit of what Colorado has to offer!  Our first stop was the GoKart track.  Anya really wanted to do this on her birthday (the first day of Spring break), but we don't have a good GoKart track near where we live.  So, as we were driving to our many Colorado stops and hotel...Matt surprised Anya with a stop here for some GoKart Racing!

 I get motion sick pretty easy. Seriously, I can barely handle the "autobahn" at Disneyland...and those cars are on a track.  Because of that, I opted to not drive.  Cora didn't want, the boys were to small...that left Matt, Anya and a grudgingly willing Hannah as our racers for the day.

 I love Hannah's face in this one.  Don't look too excited.

 Getting ready...

 And they are off!

It was a pretty fun little stop. I think we will go again sometime, especially when the boys are big enough to drive!

Anya's Birthday!!!!

Our amazing oldest had her 15th birthday!

This means she is old enough to drive with a permit in Colorado!  I am not quite ready for that one, and I am putting it off for as long as possible!  Anya amazes me!  She doesn't let the little stuff of life get to her, she has this quiet, strong confidence about her that I so admire.  She is much stronger and more self-aware then I was at her age.  If she wants to go to a play, but none of her friends can go, she will still go.  If she wants to go to a football game, she just goes, telling me "mom, I'm sure I will find someone I know...if not then I will just meet someone new".  So amazing!  She tried out for her high school's soccer and golf teams and made both for JV!  So she had to choose which she would play for.  She ended up choosing golf, and has since been bumped up to Varsity.  She is campaigning for student council and she is enrolled as a college student at University of Colorado Colorado Springs.  

Bragging moment over, as you can tell...we just think the world of this girl!

15!

How did it go by so fast!

 Her birthday fell on the first day of spring break this year.  Lucky girl!  So her birthday was kind of an all day celebration, kick of for spring break, kinda deal.  Matt even had the day off from work!

We decided to go to a local Dinosaur resource center.  It was pretty cool!

 After the our Dinosaur experience we just didn't want the day to end, so we hiked around the Red wall canyon near our house.

 Colorado is so beautiful! 

Here is a distant shot of the Garden of the Gods at sunset.

 Every year she seems more poised to me.

 My kids sure do love a good rock to climb.

 Anya's dinner of choice was Mexican!

We took this opportunity to try out a new mexican joint.

It was yummy and they sang to Anya in spanish, she liked it!

Later that week I was able to go to the Temple with this sweet girl!  We had a great morning in the service of our ancestors.

I sure do love her and the example she is to our family!

I hope year 15 is great for her.

Watch out everyone...not too much longer before this girl is on the road!!

Winter time fun

We have been enjoying our Colorado winter.  It's not quite as "snowy" as we thought it would be, but we have had a couple of good storms that have been fun!  One thing we have noticed is how DRY the snow is out here.  It is very hard to build a snow fort, build a snow man or have a snowball fight.  The snow just doesn't pack!  Sometimes if we wait a day or too, the snow will get wet enough to pack, but it just depends.  It sure makes for some fun sledding though, and we have a great hill right next to our house!  Bonus!

 I do have an honorable mention photo.  Anya got a snake right after we got home from our New Years Trip.  Not exactly sure how I feel about it yet, but she is happy, and I am getting more used to it.

Hunter got stuck on one of our snow piles.

He thought it was stellar!

 Yes, my boys still eat snow.

gross.

 Our one and only snow man we have been able to build this year.

The snow is just so dry it won't pack!

We enrolled all the kids (except Anya ) and myself into ski school this year.

The boys loved, Cora hated it, Hannah was on the fence (which surprised us!) and I finally learned how to ski.  Kinda funny since I grew up in Utah, just down the road from several ski resorts!

Aren't they so cute!

This is one for the record books folks!
The whole Jeppson Crew in skis!
I am not sure you will ever see this again...

There goes Jack.

He is so athletic, he took to it like a pro right away!

 The boys both loved the ski lift.

There goes Dad and Jack.

There goes Dad and Hunter.

Matt and Anya are the "pros" in our family.  They got season lift tickets this year and have gone so much.  They have really enjoyed their time on the mountain this year.

 Hannah and I.  I can't believe I know how to ski now.  It is fun, I don't absolutely love it, but I can see myself going like once a season or something.

The miraculous thing is Hannah is skiing!  She was absolutely against it, but we convinced her to try it and she doesn't mind it.  We even got her to go once more after her ski lesson!

 Grandma Overton gave the boys these sleds for Christmas.

We have gotten some very good use out of them!

At the bottom of our hill...

 Marching back up the hill, to go down again.

 My boys do love the snow!

 This is the view at the end of our cul-de-sac.  It sure is neat to live up in the mountains!

 We went to a ski resort to go tubing this year.  It about cost us an arm and a leg, but we bit the bullet and did anyway.   We tried it, we had fun, but we are going to ferret out the free hill from now on!

 We sure do love winter time activities in the Colorado Rockies!