Day #210

Day #4!

Leftovers, hard boiled eggs, and cereal for a quick and easy breakfast. 

It started raining right on schedule at 11:00.  Just a light drizzle, but enough to be annoying. 

We got our tickets to the caverns and decided to let the girls try the ropes course. 

While we waited for it to open we checked out the car museum. Matt and Tony slowly meandered while Sarah and I took the girls through at their pace - which was fast. 

Check out the Delaunay!

We weren’t sure they would even open the ropes course because of the rain, but they did, and we were off!

The girls were all so brave! Timid at first, but they loved the whole thing!

Delaney and Ellie did everything on the lower course, and the 3 bigger girls did everything on both. 

It took Addie a little while to warm up to the tallest tasks, but she did it. I was so proud of all of them. I love activities like this that challenge them and help build their self esteem. 

Delaney was the first one done, then Ellie, and then the 3 bigs could have played all day. We had to make them come down. We ate our parking lot lunch in our cars because of the rain, and then we were off to the caverns. I don’t know why our photog took these set-up pics, but they’re always kind of funny. 

We’ve wanted to check this place out for 11.5 years!

Frankie was nervous, but once we got into the caverns it was great. 

The only other caverns I’ve been to is Carlsbad and i don’t really remember them, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. 

We thought all these little stalactites looked like Laura’s drip castles. 

The dads and their girls. 

Addie and Frankie took roughly a million pictures. 

And you’ve always got to throw some selfies in. 

We took turns reading about the different areas. Favorites were Dream Lake, the Wishing Well, and the Fried Eggs. 

I had exactly 7 coins, and decided to let them throw them in, even my Sacajawea’s since it was for a good cause. 

We took our time and managed to stay away from most of the crowds. After the caverns we headed to the Gem Sluice. 

They got to mine for gold and coins and everyone loved their treasures. 

They got some really cool stones. 

Delaney wanted more, so she dug through at the end of the mining station. No luck though. We also got fudge, went to the toy museum, and shopped for souvenirs. 

On our way home we checked out the cute little  downtown. 

We love a Love sign!

Matt wanted to try to set up the camera across the street, but we settled for taking pictures of each other. 

We walked on the train tracks and out to the bridge. The girls were nervous about a train coming, and we had to keep reassuring them that trains are extremely slow and we’d see it long before it could ever hit us. We ended up having a nice walk and the dare devil Delaney wanted to walk right in the middle of the tracks on the bridge, complete with slats with wide spaces in between and no rails. Matt took her on the side of the bridge with a railing and more secure footing, while the bigger girls and I waited for them. 

We made spaghetti and then washed dishes in the rain. We had a cooking canopy set up for the adults and a kid canopy for the little to eat, but they mostly stayed with us or ate around the fire. then everyone took showers before retiring to our tents for the night. Matt talked to the Rays for grandpas birthday while the girls and I got cozy in our tent. I had a stake welfare meeting that I called into and was really good. Brother Neslen spoke and I always love listening to him. We’re pretty much besties cause I’ve had him give 2 presentations for our ward and talked to him several times over the years. The girls read quietly until we were done. 

During a tiny break in the rain we ran to the potty and then grabbed the peanut butter cups since the Aina’s don’t like them. Then we sat on our air mattress and ate the whole bag. We talked and laughed and it was a really sweet night with the storm raging all around us. With all of us on the air mattress, we realized we should have moved the little girls onto it with us the first cold night. We could have been so much warmer!