WISH YOU ALL WERE HERE!!

We are here in Franklin, NC, and having a ball.  We went ruby mining at 2 different places yesterday and got filthy dirty digging in the dirt and getting all that muddy sluice water all over us.  I tell you, my finger nails are orange all around the edges!  I had the misfortune to be stuck right next to Cade, who, after going through 6 "Rainbow" buckets, got bored and started playing with the screened trays.  He got me soaked with yucky water.  We did end up going to another mine and had better luck there, because we cheated and payed for buckets that were seeded with gems already.  I found quite a few rubies and sapphires, and my daughter mostly found emeralds.  Today Laura (my daughter) and I went to a gem cutter to decide what jewelry we wanted made out of our treasures.  I ended up ordering two rings - one emerald and one garnet.  My biggest ruby was not of cuttable quality, so I'll keep it uncut, I guess.  It was fun anyway.  Today is officially Cade's 7th birthday, so he's been flying high.  We have to go back to the real world tomorrow.