July 11, 2021 : Crater of Diamond AR

Boy did it storm! So just the moms and older kids went to find diamonds today. We had barely started when we ran into this little guy on the trail! Somehow a crawdad had gotten away from the stream. After multiple attempts by all, Laura managed to balance him in sticks and place him in a tiny stream!

Once at the mine, the scene was quite different than yesterday - there were mud puddles EVERYWHERE. So much so you could just find a puddle and sift in that. The kids ran around finding mud puddles and just doing what kids do best - having fun playing in dirt! 

The rain can help sift the land naturally so sometimes people see diamonds just walking around. Given this we decided to walk around after a Diamond false alarm (still think it looks like one!) for a final look. We ended up at the end of the one of the fields where the kids found a ridiculously deep mud puddle. 

Of course, into the mud puddle they went… and again and again… and then Jocelyn lost her shoes to the mud monster. A brief recovery effort found only one.. so John selflessly offered to help (can you read my sarcasm!!!) More than 30 minuted later, a few deep dives, and the help of a bucket and shovel, the lost shoe was finally recovered. 

I’ll just end here with a bunch of pictures of kids having the time of their lives.