Gage's Birthday Party

It's always a bit challenging finding new and different birthday party ideas, especially in January with the cold weather.  However, this turned out to be a pretty cool time.  Gage really wanted to do an art party, and Tara had a friend who was starting her own paint 'n sip type of business for adults, so she asked if Jess could do a kids' birthday party.  She said yes, and it turned out to be great fun!

Here are Gavin and Gage getting their backgrounds painted on their respective canvases.  She had brought a nice flower painting that they were all working to recreate.  We covered every free inch of table and floor with sheets to protect them from the onslaught of flying paint they were about to experience, and these kids all went after it.

As you can see, we got many different renditions of the edge of a nice flower.  It was so fun to see each kid's unique interpretation of the original, each one representing their unique personality.  We enjoyed some cake and got to celebrate Gage with this fun crew.  Happy Birthday, Gage!  We are so thankful for you and your eight years of life.

Hidee Mine Birthday Tour

Gage was invited to a birthday party for his friend Quinn that was a mining party.  Tara had another prior engagement, so I (Brent) was on birthday party duty for the day.  We headed up to the Hidee Mine which was about 30 minutes west of Denver towards Blackhawk and Central City.  I had not heard of this mine before but it turned out to be awesome!

Gavin ended up being a last minute addition and was thrilled for the adventure after experiencing a taste of the cave/mine world from our South Dakota trip last year.  Here they are with their helmets on and ready to go.

There were about ten kids in all for the mine tour and at least half a dozen parents.  The Hidee mine is still an active working mine where they work a few days a week and do tours on the off days.  This picture is fairly representative of what the mine looks like as it extended several hundred yards into the mountainside and also down several hundred feet.  It was large enough to work comfortably through but didn't really have support beams.

At various times, the guide would stop us to teach us about mining or something specific to the Hidee mine.  Here, Gage is holding a drilling bit where our guide was demonstrating how they used to manually hammer away with a sledge hammer and bit to clear the rock.

There were areas where they had chased some different ore deposits like the one in this picture above.  They have actually pulled several thousand ounces of gold out of the mine here in its history, which was quite impressive.

At the back end of the mine, they turned all the kids and adults loose with hammers and chisels and let us pound away at the rock for a good thirty minutes.  I guess it's there way of getting free labor to continue digging out the back side of the mine.  Here is Gage working hard on the side of the tunnel.

Toward the end of the tour we got all the kids together for a picture, but apparently it was hard to capture one where they were all looking at the camera.  I will admit this was one of the coolest mine tours I have ever been on and would strongly recommend the experience to anyone in the area that can arrange a similar tour.  Quite amazing!