Caving with Friends

The whole idea of crawling around in dark, wet places has never been appealing to me.  I am a bit clausterphobic and I just didn't think I could handle caving.  But our friends invited us to go and I thought I would give it a try.  Afterall, if Jen was willing to do it, it must be safe... right?  :)

 

We set off on our adventure and it didn't seem so bad.  These caves were called the Ape Caves (no Apes included.)  And we went in the section that was super kid friendly, you can walk about 97% of the trails.  Grant is amazing at gearing up our family and we were able to find sturdy boots in our house for all of us, including the cutest little pair you have ever seen for Calyssa.  I didn't realize just what a blessing these boots were until my poor friend, Jen, went down on some uneven rocks and sprained her ankle!  Ouch!!  I felt so bad for her!!  I wanted to stay with her but she insisted that I go on with my family.  So I decided that I would take pictures of everything so that she felt like she didn't miss out quite as much.
Some of the pictures she was most excited about, I didn't even realize what I was taking a picture of... they were pictures of "meatball," a rock that is suspended in air.  I was glad that I accidently took pictures of "meatball."  :)

It was so cold in the cave that I had to hold my breath while taking pictures, or the picture would be covered in fog.  It actually looked kind of cool, when it didn't blur out the whole picture.

 The last little bit of the cave, it became so small that you had to crawl on your belly to get to the end.  I was asking people if it opened up at the end and they said yes.  Well, it opened up to sitting but not to standing.  And once I started crawling through there, I regretted it.  I felt sick and trapped.  I took a picture of Sariah at the very end and then got out of there as fast as I could.  I felt a bit clausterphobic for the rest of the adventure.

The three youngest girls, A, B, & C, were all wearing similarly colored sweaters.  They were so cute!!  And real troopers too!  They loved the adventure!  :)

Oh my goodness... I love this picture of all the kids!!  It is so cute!  Especially because someone has his arm around someone else... how cute is that!!

 

All in all, it was pretty fun to see the Ape Caves.  Jen did get hurt but was able to walk out.  Her ankle was just sore for a couple of days.  She also cut her hands.  When I took my headlamp off, Jen thought I had hit my head because of the red mark on my forehead.  So I decided to do a silly picture.  LOL!  ;)

Jen took a picture of Riana and I because I wanted to make sure there was at least one good picture of me.  It turned out cute!  :)

We worked up quite the appetite so we stopped at a local pizza restaurant.  It was good pizza but even better company.  After eating, the kids played on the playground and had a blast together.  Our kids were so exhausted that almost all of them fell asleep on the way home!!  It was a super fun adventurous day!  We were glad our friends invited us!!  :)