Blessings and Joys: Day 7-Freezing Cold Creeks and ...a BEAR Sighting!!!

A hummingbird, a mouse, a ... wait, I'm getting ahead of myself! I need to go in order! We got up, got around, I made lunches, we ate breakfast and finally got off a little later than normal. Our first stop was to an old mine! After today, Zane is an enthusiast. He wants to build a mine, he wants to work in a mine, and we didn't even go on the tour! Too scary, too young and too claustrophobic. Maybe when we are all older. Haha!

They thought this was so great.

Daddy did a great job explaining everything.

The mine sign-I believe it was 1884 and the opening to the mine.

Zane declared this one his favorite and was happy to let me take his picture beside it.

Next, we went up the road with the intent of finding another old mine, but got side tracked by a beautiful stream which beckoned to us. And of course, the kids threw rocks, walked in and got all wet, dug, dug, dug, and Daddy introduced them to dam building! It was a really pretty stream coming down from the mountains. And freezing cold!

Oh yeah, we saw this butterfly!

This stream was very small right now, but I'm sure in the spring after a hard winter, the water would reach up to here. It was so neat!

Three miners, mining for gold. Dig, dig.

Pretty rocks!

Dig, throw

Dig, dig

Hi favorite people!!!!

After this, LUNCH! Me and Rach are decidedly the most excited every time about lunch. :) And you would not believe what friend came to visit us...

Jeff!

Zane and Jeff-two peas in a pod, for sure.

We were sitting, munching on sandwiches and a hummingbird came right by us and sat on a branch! I could not get my camera fast enough and off she flew. It was really cool though. And then, I looked down by the rock and there was a tiny mouse! At first I thought-oh dirty, a mouse, and then I was like, well we are eating in a forest. haha. So Jeff got a little stick and nudged it away because it was so still. Then I looked down and there it was by Jeff's boot! It was happy in the sunshine and kept nudging forward until it was under his boot! She did not realize how brave she really was.

Meet Miss Mouse!

Poor Zane-I brought the candy bars that they had picked out in Durango and he hardly ate any of it. Tried to feed it to him again tonight and the nugget was completely like concrete! I'm glad he still has his teeth! He will be getting a replacement when we go to the store. Of course, that means one for Rachey too. haha

Saying goodbye to Miss Mouse!

After lunch we headed down the road (all this is pretty close to our cabin/house-maybe 2 miles) and we found some old mine ruins. One rock looked like it had copper in it. Jeff said he didn't want it, so I got it! :) We couldn't find a way to safely go down and look at more really cool looking ones so we kept going on the road. We met a nice couple that told us the trail was pretty scary with little ones due to the cliffs and so we opted to go on to the stream-this was the same stream we played at earlier, just farther up the mountain. And we played some more! It was pretty cool and even colder if that's possible!

Old Mining Ruins

This gave the history of the mine. I thought it was nice that they recognized the men and families who lived around this mine.

More beautiful water!

This area had a ton of rock slides.

We were thinking of hiking this at least a little ways...

but then WE SAW A BEAR!!!!!

We needed water after playing so long in the stream, so we had the back of the suburban open and were all sitting in there, at least the kids were and Jeff and I were standing drinking our water. Jeff says, I think that's a bear cub. What? Up there on the road, I think I just saw a bear cub. I had seen something, but just the movement, it was gone. Got the binoculars and nothing. Oh, I'd missed it. The kids started getting scared. And we decided well, maybe we won't go up the trail. And then, guess what? THERE IT IS AGAIN! And I looked and IT WAS A BEAR! All of us saw it, even the kids! It must have been going down to the stream to get some water and then a car coming by scared it up again because it crossed the road again going up. And it wasn't a bear cub, it was an adult bear! It looked brown/tan to us and Zane said that the top of it was darker. WOW! We didn't get a picture, it happened too fast. He or she wasn't sticking around. We tried to find it on the mountain, but didn't, only saw a mule deer running off from where the bear would have gone. It was so cool. So then the kids were ready to go so they wouldn't get eaten! Ready to go!

We continued on our mine themed day. Of course, you couldn't top a bear sighting. But we went up a very narrow county road and was glad when there was a spot big enough for us to turn around. The wind was picking up and we thought it might start raining and we certainly didn't want to be up there when it did. Scary on that road.

Not to be discouraged, we went down the highway like we were going to Silverton and went to Ironton Townsite. It was pretty neat! An old abandoned mining town. Zane loved it! We got to go in some buildings, but others we just had to peer into, they were in really bad shape. We also saw a stream that was the yuckiest color of yellow/rusty color ever due to the rocks/ore around it.

The road to Silverton is down to one lane for a stretch. We are hoping they keep timing the traffic light correctly.

These guys should get hazard pay!

Home sweet home for someone long ago.

My sweetie.

My little sweeties.

Rachey picked this for me.

Zane pretended to sneeze when I wanted their picture. :) I never know what he's up to.

Lovely water.

Boy we saw lots of animals today. And the last was a duck! She needs to find a little better place to swim. :)

When we came home, I made hamburgers and since there wasn't a place in the little oven to broil them, I decided to use the skillet. Jeff made a cool ventilation system for me that worked great. Hamburgers were eating and next was pudding. Rachel enjoyed hers. :)