Have you ever wanted to find a diamond that you could keep?! Yes, us too! Makayla and Ethan both thought that mining for diamonds would be an awesome thing to do as part of their birthday present and we were happy to oblige. Happily, our friends, Chris and Kimberly and their 4 kids met us there too.
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| Lovely campsite! |
The State Park was very nice. Wooded, but we didn't have trouble parking our 40 foot 5th wheel. I should say that Eldon didn't have any trouble but I didn't even like backing just the truck up because of all the trees :).
Our site was at the top of a small hill and the children had an absolute blast riding bikes and scooters down it. At one point, I caught Makayla and her friend hanging onto the scooters and flying down with rollarblades on their feet. They assured me they were perfectly in control, even immediately after both went sprawling out on the pavement. Miraculously, no serious injuries happened and our area was filled with joyful shrieks of laughter.
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| The diamond field! |
The night we got there, it rained and rained and rained. This was a very good thing since it brings diamonds to the top of the soil. We were told to look for shiny rocks the size of a match head. Since diamonds are oily, dirt doesn't stick to them either. Of course, you have to pay for access to the field but the bill for our family was only $30.
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| So much mud! |
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| The kids were completely thrilled to have a great reason to get filthy! |
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| It half misted most of the day, which kept us from overheating :) |
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| "I found one!", he kept shouting. |
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| Michael was more enthralled with finding the deepest puddle instead of a diamond! |
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| "It's important to get your hands in the mud, mom." |
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| So glad I made the boys wear their swimming trunks because they were covered in mud and water! |
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| After 2 hours, these two just wanted to sit under a tree and eat snacks. |
Eldon and I ended up taking Emily, Ethan, and our friend two older boys home around lunchtime. Makayla and Michael were thrilled to stay with Chris, Kimberly, and their 2 youngest children. Much to my shock, they stayed until 4 o'clock! Unfortunately, no one in our group found any diamonds but several were found on the field. It was a great experience and I'd recommend that everyone do it at least once.
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| Holding their bags of pretty rocks. It must be true that Arkansas rocks have babies because people have been hauling rocks from this field for years and there is still plenty! |
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| Eldon found a tree frog and it provided great entertainment for all until it hopped up the bathroom wall and out of our reach. |
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| The campground has a nice little playground. |
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| "I need to fix this, mama." |
I'm sure other campers wondered why on earth anyone would come to a great State Park to do home improvements but that's exactly what we did! All the stuff from our underbelly was cleared out and Eldon and Chris spent 2 days installing solar panels on our rig. We're so excited since this allows us to do much more boondocking and also leave less of a footprint.
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| Crafts |
We did our best to keep the children out from underfoot by going on a hike, visiting the playground, and pulling out all manner of crafty jazz for them to create with.
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