A Great Babysitter

I have to admit, when my parents mentioned a couple of years ago about taking a vacation "out west" to seach for gold, I thought they really needed to find a hobby. I mean, people really go out into the desert or an old river bed and actually "pan for gold"? Isn't there some sort of machine that does that these days? After many questions, however, it appears that many, many people do this not only for fun, but for a living. Now you could have asked me a year ago about the price of gold and I would not even know what you are talking about, but now I have discovered that it fluctuates just like stocks and currently is around $900 per ounce. Why am I blogging about this? Because as it turns out, this has become my kids favorite thing to do! You can actually buy a "bag of dirt" off ebay and dig through it and find tiny pieces of gold. My children love this along with my parents. My dad has high blood pressure and this "panning for gold" really helps him relax. When my kids go to visit, Mom will give them an aluminum pan of dirt and they are busy for HOURS! Britton is by far the most interested and can spot a fleck of gold like nobody's business. In fact, for her birthday she asked for a "bag of gold". Needless to say, she has been sitting at the kitchen counter every evening searching for her treasures and has found some significant sized pieces (possibly planted there by Mamaw who gave her the bag of dirt for her birthday). Easton and Landon also received bags of dirt and have been searching for their treasures as well. Easton loves finding "diamonds" which are actually peices of crystals and Landon likes the rubies and emeralds. Although I can't imagine them ever finding enough to sell, they have some great memories and who knows, maybe even a future geologists will come out of all this dirt that has spilled onto my counter and floor!