Hunting for Sapphires

Tucked away in Montana is a small town called Philipsburg. Bob’s mother lived in Anaconda not far from Philipsburg. So whenever we visited Anaconda, when my children were small we would drive to Philipsburg. We would then drive about 22 miles out of Philipsburg to a mountain called Gem Mountain. At Gem Mountain we could hunt sapphires by paying for bucketfuls of gravel from Gem Mountain. Gravel by the bucketful would be washed, screened then dumped out on wooden tables where my kids would hunt for the treasure of sapphires. They have wonderful memories of doing this as children. Today sapphire hunters just have to go to Philipsburg to the storefront of Gem Mountain (Montana Sapphire Company) where they do all the work for you. You can still look through the dirt at the store…or you can do like we did. We ordered sapphire gravel and we go hunting for sapphires in the comfort of our home…the grandkids love doing it.

Hunting for sapphires

CHRISTMAS FUN, CHRISTMAS FUN, CHRISTMAS FUN

More Christmas Family Activities! We tried to do something everyday! We went to the Coterie Theatre, Build a Bear, made play dough, went sapphire hunting (yes real sapphires), and got yogurt. Even getting a haircut ended up being quite an outing.

Charlie Brown Christmas at the Coterie

The Coterie Theatre

The Peanuts holiday mood is set with a live jazz trio playing the original Vince Guaraldi arrangements! As Christmas approaches, Charlie Brown sees displays of overwhelming materialism everywhere, even by his own dog, Snoopy. Dispensing psychiatric help, Lucy suggests he become director of the school Christmas pageant. Charlie Brown accepts, but it proves frustrating to corral the attention of his peers. When an attempt to restore the proper spirit with a forlorn little fir Christmas tree fails, he needs Linus’ help to learn the real meaning of the season.

Charlie Brown Christmas at the Coterie

Crown Center

Build a Bear at Oak Park Mall

Little did we know all of Kansas City would be there too….after waiting about 1 1/2 hours in a slow moving line we finally got to build our bears…actually we did not build one bear…we had minions, cats, dogs, peek-a-chu…but no bears.

Build A Bear

Play Dough (homemade of course) Play Time

Becca and Caroline set up a Play Dough Bakery Shop

Here’s the recipe for homemade Play-Doh

Homemade Play Dough recipe

Homemade Playdough (.doc format)

Homemade PlayDoh recipe (.pdf format)

Sapphire Hunting

Something new we did this year was sapphire hunting…real sapphires! Very special dirt/gravel is used to search for the sapphires. When my children were growing up we would visit Bob’s mom in Anaconda, Montana. We would travel to Gem Mountain (near Philipsburg, Montana) to go “prospecting” for sapphires. My kids loved it and looked forward to it every year. For my grandkids I ordered a mega jug of gravel from Gem Mountain to let them have the sapphire hunting experience. It was definitely a hit!