Rock Geeks

If you read any of my posts from last summer you already know that Chris and and I like rocks.

Growing up I had a few boxes filled with rocks, and these weren't pretty ones, mind you, these are ones you find on the side of the street in Boise, Idaho.

And you already know that last summer we went rockhounding in southern Utah with Chris' parents, and that it was a blast. And this summer we fit in a little rockhounding on our way to a wedding.

But we've reached the point of certifiable rock geekness.

Chris bought a tile saw to cut rock.

O.K., maybe that doesn't mean total geekdom, does that come when we buy a rock polisher? I don't mean a tumbler, I mean a rock polisher with belts (yes, we do want one, does that count?)

Anyway, we spent an evening when it wasn't over 100 degrees last week cutting rock. Or I should say Chris cut rock, I just ooohed and awwwed.

We had jasper and wonderstone to cut. Jasper is really really hard to cut through, but worth it--this was Chris' favorite piece:

Lisi kept her hands over her ears, cutting rock is really loud!

When you cut it wonderstone out of the hill in Vernon you never know exactly what you're going to find once it's cut; from the outside it may look like nothing, but once you slice through, you might find something like this:
Abs and Lisi picking out rock.

This is my favorite piece of jasper so far:

We've already been talking to Chris' parents about searching for thunder eggs next year in southwestern Colorado (google it, they're beautiful), and septarian nodules in S. Utah. And we made sure when Chris bought a new car last week that it had off-roading capabilities.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that we're rock geeks.