4H Pancake Breakfast

We were excited to volunteer at the 4H Foundation Pancake Breakfast this year.  Cambrie and I have attended for the last few years but this year she got to wear her adorable 'whites' and serve guests.

Oh my...look how cute she looks!

At first she was NOT happy about serving, but she quickly got the hang of it and loved every minute.

It helped that we had a huge group of family come to support us!

I just love 4H kiddos - they are so adorable!

All of my aunts and uncles plus lots of my cousins, my sister and of course both sets of grandparents came to support us.  I was so honored to see such love from everyone.  

Cambrie has asked when the next time is she gets to serve eggs - so happy that she liked it and is learning to love the act of serving our community.

Spring Break 2018 - Part Four

We decided to cut our time in Jackson short and head to Sacramento for a hotel with a better swimming pool and some more state history. 

We love hotels with indoor swimming pools, especially when there isn't anyone else there.

The next morning we headed to Sutters Fort, our final stop on the legendary State of California history tour.  

  

We were visiting during some 4th grade overnight trips and were able to watch the students complete their activities...like churning, making food, working in the leather shop and firing the canon.  It was really fun to witness and the canon was super loud!  We all had to yell 'fire in the hole' it was funny :)

Both of our 'girls' had a great trip away and we enjoyed all of the moments together.  We learned so much and it was such a pleasure to learn it together.

Spring Break 2018 - Part Three

Our next adventure was to Coloma to the state park where gold was discovered. - it was a wonderful park.  They had a great Junior Ranger program set-up with scavenger hunts and activities for the kids.  At the end C was sworn in as a junior deputy - it was so cute!

The activity book was a great way for us to learn about the history as well as keep her entertained during our long exploration.

 

This is the spot where gold was discovered...a moment that changed the course of our state forever.  So fun!

  

Basically the whole town is the state park and all the buildings are historical.  Here is the school:

And what was once the store:

And the jail too:

Here she is being sworn in :)

She was nervous repeating the pledge but did a great job - so very proud of her!

Goofy family photo in from of the John Marshall statute :)

Spring Break 2018 - Part Two

The weather our first day included lots of clouds, some rain and some sun.  The next day in Jackson was all sunshine - perfect for all the exploring we had scheduled.  There are lots of pictures below, but we had too much fun not to share it all.  

We spent the morning at the Kennedy Mine and we learned SO much together.  It was a great spot.

We decided to take a self guided tour and took our time reading all of the markers and the associated maps.  For the first part of our visit we were the only people on the grounds and Shasta was able to come with us.  It was perfect.

Love the signal system chart - I'm sure the 7 bell signal was rang too often.  

The cart full or ore were super heavy...they had a full one on a track that we could practice with. 

The size of the machines and parts of the mine were amazing.  Crazy to think that these were all crafted and made decades ago.  

The offices had a lovely view - we imagined all the money that was counted in the building.

It was cold but it was so pretty!

At the end we mined for gold with a super informative gentlemen who was a second generation miner.  He had SO many stories that he was happy to share with us.  

C's gold flake necklace...which she later accidentally opened and it got all over her.  There were so many tears.  Sobbing (with lots of snot too).  She was devastated.  She thought she was going to buy a horse saddle with the gold.  Sweet thing.  

After our long adventures at Kennedy Mine we went to Sutter Creek to walk around and check out all of its history.  This the local store with everything priced as it was during the gold rush.  They did a great job displaying everything.  

We also headed over to the Knight Foundry which is the oldest working water powered machine shop.  It was founded in 1873.  So crazy!