Carlsbad Caverns

We drove to Carlsbad Caverns the day after White Sands, and when we pulled into the parking lot, I started to feel a little panicky because it was PACKED, with tons of people walking toward the Cavern Visitor's Center.  I have anxiety about taking my children in crowded places.  But I put on my brave face and in we went to the crowded visitor's center.  

We like to hike down into the caves through the natural entrance, and since our knees are all pretty young, we can handle the 800 foot elevation drop in 1.5 miles.  

We headed down, leaving behind the light and warmth and heading into the musty darkness.  I can't even imagine what it would be like to have been the first person to have discovered this.  And how in the world did he find his way back out!?

The Hall of Giants--the caverns largest formations.

So I'm not sure what genius scheduled an elevator renovation during one of the cavern's peakest of peak  times, but sure enough, the elevators were down and they were getting people out of the caves using the 8-passenger service elevator.  After we'd wandered around the caverns for a couple of hours we headed to the elevators to see how long the current wait was.

2 hours.

Well, I don't wait in line for 2 hours for anything.

So we decided to hike back out, an option they don't usually allow, but under the circumstances, they had made special exceptions.  Arthur and I were a little worried that we might have some problems with the kids -- it was almost 3:30, more than 3 hours since they'd had lunch, and it would be an 800 foot climb in 1.5 miles!

But I figured that walking out, even if it took us 2 hours, would be better than standing there, trying to control 5 squirrelly and hungry kids in front of a bunch of other cranky people trying to get out of the caves.  I braced myself for a couple of meltdowns from Sean and Hayden, and possibly Daphne.  But I told them as we started the hike up that we were about to do something pretty hard.  And we were going to feel amazing when we got to the top, and we had to keep going no matter what.  They said they could do it.  So we started up.

Sydney was asleep in Aunt Emma's arms, but all the other kids walked.  We figured we'd see how far Hayden could go before loading him in the pack.  He amazed us!  He kept going and going and going. We stopped several times for water (and some illegal fruit snacks that the kids ate very secretly so we didn't get the rangers called on us . . . and of course we were VERY careful not to leave any trace of garbage.)  At one point, we passed a couple of adult women who were resting.  As he was passing them, Hayden said to them, "Are you guyth okay?"  It made me laugh, to hear that coming from his little 3-year-old mouth.

Well, he made it 3/4's of the way up before his little legs just wouldn't go anymore, and we put him in the pack.  Emma and I traded off holding Sydney and the other kids just kept trucking on out of there.

This is a picture of all of them standing in the first rays of natural light to penetrate the cave's darkness.  

It was kind-of a profound moment.  And it was amazing how the sight of that light gave us the extra energy we needed to finish the last climb.

Emma said that hiking out of that cave was pretty epic.  I completely agree.   I think I heard some "Lord of the Rings" background music in my head as we walked up and up and up out of the darkness.

 

We made it to the mouth of the cave in just 40 minutes!  Arthur and I were so proud of our kids when we made it out of there, because we can honestly say, there was not a word of complaining from any of them!  And they felt really proud of themselves for doing something that hard.  They are just phenomenal bunch of kiddos.

White Sands

We took Emma and the kids to White Sands the last weekend of Spring Break.  It was pretty crowded, and the only spot we could find to eat was this handicapped area.  I sometimes think we should qualify for handicapped, so I didn't feel too bad that we were there.  Arthur roasted us some hot dogs and we had a dandy time.  

This is the only picture we got of Sydney smiling.  I thought she would be curious about the sand and want to crawl around in it, but after tasting it when we first put her down, she didn't want anything to do with it, and wasn't very happy the rest of the time we spent there.

Emma!  That white sand is BLINDING!

Here we are looking for a good place to slide down.

Climbing up the dunes is exhausting!

can't. go. another. step.

Last time we went, it was so windy, we didn't stay long because the wind kept getting in everyone's eyes, and just made us all really uncomfortable.  So this time, we kept our eyes on the weather before we left, and Friday was supposed to be pretty mellow.  Well, there was NO wind at all, and it turns out that you can get pretty hot without any wind out there.  So we found that if you dug a few inches down, you could cool yourself down with the cool sand beneath the surface.  That's what Sean was doing here in this picture.

A cool shot that Arthur took

I love the uniqueness of White Sands--I've never seen anything like it. 

Hayden had a blast-he was just covered in sand, and would go down and hike up and go down and hike up, over and over!  He totally wore himself out and fell asleep on the short drive back to the hotel when we were done at the dunes.

Sydney finding solace in her bottle.   

She does not like sand.

The girls.

Our family

(except Sydney who was drinking her bottle and it would have been tragic to interrupt her.)

And she is completely done with White Sands.

Heading back to the car.

We stayed in Alamogordo that night at the same hotel as our friends the McEntires!  So when the McEntire's got in we had a swim party in the pool.  Our kids thought it was so fun to see them there!  We were doing the same vacation in opposite order, and crossed in the middle.  Fun times.  

Elena Gallegos Hike

The weather was great during spring break, so we went for a little hike at Elena Gallegos one day.  We packed a lunch to eat there and then we went on a hike.  I promised the kids that if they didn't whine, we would go get Pop-Pop's afterward.  When one of them would start to whine, someone else would say, "No whining--don't you want Pop-Pops?"  Toward the end, I heard Sean and Hayden talking and their conversation went something like this:

Sean:  I'm happy.  Are you happy Hayden?

Hayden: Yep, I'm happy.

Sean: I'm not whining because I want to get Pop-Pop's afterward.

Hayden: Yeah, we want some Pop-Pops so we are not whining.  We are really happy!

Whatever it takes to cut down on the whining.  So I was happy because there was no whining.  And we had some delicious pop-pops afterwards which made us all happy!

Pagosa Springs Trip

Right after From Cumorah's Hill we took a family trip up to Pagosa Springs, Colorado where we rented a cabin with Natalie and Brian.  Julianne and Eric came up the last couple of days, and we all had a great time together.

Dallin went skiing with the grown-ups all three days and did just fine.  He tackled everything we wanted to go on. We put Sean, Daphne and Kyrie in ski school for 2 days at Wolfcreek.  They had a blast and made a lot of progress.  It was cute to ski with them at the end of the day.  

The cabin we rented had a hot tub.  It felt great after you were skiing, but they had some weird chemical in the water that tasted really bitter.  I'm not saying we were drinking the water, but when you are in the hot tub with a bunch of hyper kids, you can't help but get water splashed in your mouth.

The first night Natalie, Emma and I got in with the kids and they kept splashing so much we had to make a no moving rule, and if you splashed you had to get out and freeze your tush off for 30 seconds as punishment.  But they thought it was fun to get out and freeze, so that plan backfired.  

From then on, no one wanted to go in with the kids, but Uncle Brian was a sport and went out to supervise them the last night we were there.  Thanks Uncle Bubba!

Okay, the funny thing about this picture is that it looks like they are posing, right?

nope.

This is totally real.

These two girls were hot and cold.  

Daphne:  "Sometimes we were best friends and sometimes we were NOT FRIENDS AT ALL!

But now we miss each other."

The cabin we stayed at had all these  dead animals hanging on the wall.  The boys thought it was great and Brian spent some time contemplating which stag he would shoot if they were both standing in the same field.  Lilly was very scared of this bison head.  When she first got to the cabin, we were feeding her some lunch and she was sitting with her back to the bison head.  She wouldn't eat, but kept looking nervously over her shoulder and the big black head.  

Daphne:  Me and Kyrie wanted to pet it.  Uncle Eric lifted her up so she could pet it, but she screamed! So then Uncle Eric lifted me up to pet it and I said, "It feels rough."  Then Kyrie did it.  Uncle Eric told her that it is not scary.  But Lilly screamed again.  So Aunt Natalie said, "It's not scary.  It's just a big Kooky-head."  Then Lilly started calling it Kooky-head.  And she wasn't scared anymore.

THE END

Just a cute picture of Sydney

Lilly

Sean and Hayden playing a little chess.

Heading outside to explore

Adventure to the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Park:

One day, Natalie and I took the kids to this Rocky Mountain Wildlife Park.  It's really small but pretty fun.  When you first get there you are greeted by a gang of turkeys.  

I think this Tom Turkey felt threatened by Hayden wearing his chicken hat.  He kept taking steps toward him and finally I had to come over and shoo him away because it looked like there might be a show down.

When we went inside to pay, the gal at the counter said she was about to bring in the baby lamb, if we wanted to stay inside for a minute.  They hadn't named her yet, so we got to write down name suggestions.  Daphne submitted the name "Thumbelina" and I voted for "Sweet Pea."

The lamb drinking her bottle.

This sign made me laugh.  

I think I should make one to wear as a necklace at certain times of the month.

Sydney again.  You can see her two little teeth in this one.

The girls feeding a Donkey and a goat.

Clearly, she's my favorite photo subject these days.

This Elk's name was Trighton.  His antlers weigh about 30 lbs and he usually loses them around March.
We were lucky to see them still on, I guess.

Daphne fell in love with these cute little bunnies.
Unfortunately for her, they were too quick for her to get near.

We had such a fun time together skiing, eating, visiting, playing games, and relaxing in the hot tub.  Oh, I can't wait until we own our cabin in Pagosa Springs!  We love that little town.