Sapphire Mining from July 2012

Last July while we were in Montana, we stopped by Gem Mountain to mine for sapphires. It was a lot of fun, I (Matthew) could have spent hours doing this, but the kids didn't have the same amount of patience, but there wasn't too much complaining for the 4 hours we were there. I put together a small video of the process of mining for sapphires at Gem Mountain. At the end you can see the glass-like rough sapphire, we collected about 75 of these rough sapphires from 4 buckets of gravel.

We paid to have 7 of the sapphires (that were large enough) to be heat-treated and cut. It takes them 6-9 months to complete this step, I guess there is a large waiting line. The remaining rough sapphires, Kristina put in a small vase with some sand. You can see that below.

We got the finished product in the mail about 2 weeks ago. They are small, but pretty. The first picture was not heat-treated, they left in its natural state because of the unique coloring. The last 3 are all similar in size and color and they recommend a mounting and possibly a pendant for these 3.

Here is the best close-up of the larger sapphire (a whopping .31 carat). We don't know how much any of them are worth, but I'm pretty sure their value is at least twice what we paid to get them heat-treated and cut. Nice souvenirs from a fun vacation we will remember. We'll definitely visit Montana again.

Kids Basketball Season

Kanayla and Xavien's basketball seasons are almost over. It has been fun watching their practices and games and the improvement they have made on the court. Today they both put on forward a great and aggressive effort. Kanayla scored 6 points today (her team scored 18), here is a couple of her made baskets. Not bad for her first year playing.

Xavien just loves being on the team. His first year has been great as well. He listens really well to what the coach tells him to do. He is also a tenacious defender. His hands are always up and most the time in the face of the opponent. You can see that in the video below.

 

The next video of him is a bit longer, but you get to see him cheer for his team when they make a basket and he also steals the ball from the kid he is defending and then wisely passes the ball to the point guard (we have some dribbling work to do before next season).