Mammoth Cave Trip

So, Sunday July 20th we woke up at 9:00 a.m. Well, that would be what time our church starts!! OOPS!! I had my alarm set and apparently when it went off for the 3rd or 4th time I turned it OFF!!! So, we decide since we have already sluffed today we would make it a family day and do something fun with the kids. We decide to go to Cedar Mountain to Mammoth Caves. The kids were stoked. I was stoked and Jeff was searching for flashlights. We managed to come up with enough and a lantern which would make up for a couple individual flashlights. That was about an hour process by the way. Trying to find a flashlight at our house is next to impossible, well one that is still fully functionable with batteries, and all ya know. Any who, we head out for our journey. The weather was great, a little overcast, which made it cooler than normal. It rained on us the way up there, not too bad though! We find the caves after Jeff is completely heartbroken over how "commercialized" it has become, since it has been like 15 years since his visit there.. It is supposed to stay the same. The road is graded, fairly decent sized. There are intersections, and BATHROOMS!!! And even a parking lot! Jeff was devastated at this recent discovery called CHANGE!!! Then again he counted about 1000,00000 cars that we passed on the way up the mountain with Nevada plates.....not too sure whats wrong with NEVADANS!!!!! HEHEHEHE!! LOL! Anyway, we find the cave surprisingly it was where Jeff's memory had told him! We head down it, and go thru the barred entrance that you have to shimmy thru. They have erected the barred fence to protect the bats that hibernate in the caves. EEEWWWW!!!!! We go thru the large cave for about 1/4 mile maybe thru the rocks and mud. It was soo fun! The kids loved it! Chayden thought he would follow dad in this section right before it gets to crawl spaces literally, and finds the MUD SPOT! If you know Chayden very well, then you know his "faster shoes" they happen to be Cars and they are not exactly the tightest shoes on his feet. Ya, every time he would try to move his foot, his shoe would get stuck in the mud and stay in the mud while he took a step. He was going in circles and falling down IN THE MUD trying to get to a rock to stand on. It was hilarious to watch, I was having a ball! Jeff got a huge piece of ice for the kids to see, they thought that was pretty awesome! We made a U-turn and headed back for the entrance.
Once we made it out of that one, Jeff wanted to try this other one that he could remember going in when he was younger and smaller! We had to shimmy on our belly's thru this one most of the way. I had a hard time this time, because I get freaked out if I am in a small confined space. I am very claustrophobic! Can't breathe, and start panicking. But, I managed thru it. I only got a little frantic a couple of times. Charger kept trying to stand up. He would bonk his head on the rocks above him and fall back down. The poor kids' head had to be SO sore. He kept going ahead of me and turning around saying "Mommy" while holding his hand out to help me. What a sweetheart to look out for his mommy! I loved it. Chayce, Chanley, and Chayden went ahead to make sure we had an exit without turning around. Needless to say they were out of the cave and back in waiting for us for a bit. They kept yelling to make sure mom was ok. I will tell ya, that is one thing that is nice about all these sons, is that they make sure that Momma is taken care of! I couldn't ask for anything better! We finally made it out of the cave and had to walk a bit to get back to the Tahoe, it was perfect!
We decided to head back home and go thru Hatch, on into Coral Pink Sand Dunes to let the "kids" play in the sand. Jeff was wishing pretty hard that his four wheeler would just appear in front of him so he could ride it. The kids went "rolling" down the hills, getting sand in places you wouldn't care to know! The storm was working it's way to us, and by the time we were back in the car after playing there for an hour, it started to rain. We headed back over the Caines Bed Road that Jeff had heard so much about and had to explore. We renamed it "beer can road". They were everywhere on the side of the road.
We made it back home in six, one pieces safely. We even had a little bit of leftover energy to make dinner and have a great evening to the perfect "mini-vacation" day with our great little family! We absolutely love these days, and we will miss them.....when they're gone that is!!!