Kennecott Family Day

My dad retired two years ago and now works full time at the Kennecott Mine. In all my years living here I have never been to the mine, the visitor center or anything. It is really quite fascinating. Kennecott had a family day on September 20th for employee's and their families. We were all very happy to go, especially because it was dad's day off and he was able to go with us. We didn't go to the mine itself but we had a special tour of the concentrator where they crush all the rocks to a fine powder and mix different chemicals to get the different ore out of the powder.

On the bus tour portion of our day



Entering the concentrator with our safety gear on.

At the mine they remove all the rocks and ore and send it to the concentrator (which is to the north of the mine) on a 5 mile conveyor belt.

It was amazing to see the process and the kids had so much fun too. We had to wear protective eye wear and also ear plugs. It was stinky in there because they use sulfur and other chemicals -Emily had to put a pair of nose plugs up her nose so she didn't have to smell it. They provided lunch for us and also a canvas bag of stuff, which included a flashlight, a 20 year commemorative coin since the concentrator has been operating for 20 years now.

It was a fun family day. We were sad that Colby couldn't be with us and the rest of his family. We really think he would have liked to see how everything works too. Science is amazing!

Dad stayed out with Jaxsen the first round, only kids 5 and older could enter the concentrator. My kids loved it so much they wanted to go again, so we went back inside a second time so grandpa could see the action too.

These big drums behind Joe and Hayley are where rocks are placed first. Those are agitators or what they call ball mills, they have big steal balls in them that crush and break up the rocks. There are maybe 8 to 10 of these giant things working at the same time, so it is really loud. After the rocks are through with this process they are dropped out onto a conveyor belt (much smaller) and transfered over to the next piece of equipment that breaks them down even more and so on and so forth, until they are a fine powder.

A video of the ball mills:


This is the molybdenum floatation where they get all the molydebenum out of the rocks. The picture doesn't do it justice. I was really cool. It reminded me of big bubbles of mercury floating over the sides.

I forgot I took a video if you would like to see click play.

LUNCH

I thought this port-a-john was funny. Had to take a picture.



Our bus ride back to the parking lot where our cars were parked.

Alicyn's Special Day

On September 13th Ali was baptized to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She has been looking forward to this day since she turned 7 years old. As her friends and cousins have been baptized she would get more and more excited.

She met with our bishop, Bishop Brown and they had a really nice talk about baptism and what it means to follow in Jesus' footsteps. She really was ready and made the decision on her own. She is such a little joy. Always wants to make everyone happy and tries so hard to do the right thing. A couple of weeks before her baptism Zach had Thomas the Train book at church and after he was done looking at it Ali took it. Dave leaned over and said something to her...must have been something like you are getting to old to be doing that, you need to be quiet and listen to the people talking.

The following Sunday she sat by the wall with this long face, almost looked ready to cry. I called her over and asked what was wrong and she said. Dad told me that I can't be little anymore and I have to just sit here and listen to the boring talkers since I am getting baptized soon. It was hard not to laugh. I told her that she just needed to try hard not to be noisy and distract people around us.

We have so many family and friends that love us and we feel it. She had so much support and you could just see how happy she was to have everyone there just for her.

We had a lunch after at our house, it was great to visit and be together.

Zach - Back to School

Monday, September 8th

Well the morning started out great. Zach was so excited to go back to school. I don't know what it is with him and me but as soon as we get to school his mood totally changes. He turns into a stinker! ...and I mean a stinker.

He clings to me, throws a fit and just won't cooperate at all. I tried to get some cute pictures of him and his first day. Well you see how that turned out.

Hiding behind the door

I also had a little bit of a melt down myself. I think it was a mixture of things, being a working mom and wishing I could do the simple every day things that mom's do. Like picking your kid up from school...seeing how their day is first hand instead of asking hours later and getting the same response every day...I DON'T KNOW. Stressing out of how to get him to school, pick him up and to the daycare too and not being in trouble with work or working til 8:00 pm. I am sure being a little emotional about Grandma B didn't help the situation either. I cried to Miss Lisa when I was leaving.

Then cried to Megan like a boob when I went to pick Zach up that day, and even more so when she told me with a smile and cheerful grin that she was more than happy to help me out with whatever. She is my angel. She is going to pick Zach up at daycare every school day and then take him back there after school so I can go to work earlier and have a better schedule. I didn't get off work last year until 7:00 at night because I had to take Zach to school every day. Now I might be able to get dinner on the table before 9:00 and have homework and violin practice completed without pulling my hair out. Talk about flopping into bed ready to die. I owe Megan BIG TIME!

After school was a different story....I walked with Lexi to pick him up and he was all smiles and happy.