Day 2!

Heading into the cave...sorry, terrible lighting on the picture.

At the end where I was no longer going to be crawling. I could stand here if I bent over a bit.

Waiting for the others to come back.

All of the crew, squished in the teeny, tiny spot, just before the end of the cave!


Thursday morning we woke up and made sack lunches for everyone. We headed to Bend to the Lava Caves! I had been there as a child once or twice but no one else had! Boy, were they in for a treat!!!!

It's quite a hike down into the depths of the cave. We had a couple little ones that were not really sure about going into the dark. We stopped at the entrance and rented 3 lanterns. I had Jasmine on my back, Sam had Savannah on her back and Scott had Isaiah.

The temperature in the cave is a constant 45 degrees. Thankfully we had thought to grab every one's sweatshirts, even though the temperature outside was much warmer. The cave is approximately 7000 feet long. So just about 1.3 miles. It's amazing how long that feels like when you are walking in a dark cave!!

The cave is pretty open, with the *ceiling* pretty far up there. There was a sign inside that said it was 50 feet thick (the distance between the roof of the cave to the ground above us)!!

There were spots where the sides and the ceiling were suddenly right next to us and I felt very claustrophobic. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the ceiling dropped to the point where we were on our hands and knees, crawling through the dark.

It finally got to a point just before the end where we were going to be crawling for quite a ways and then on a slither on our stomachs to the end. I decided to stop there and wait for the others. Scott took Izzy off his back and they crawled together. Everyone went except for Talisha, Savannah, Jasmine, Thomas and I. We waited, hunched over for about 15 minutes, while the others went to the end.

Coming out at the opening again felt like Heaven! Our eyes adjusted to the light, we were hit by a blast of hot air and we huffed and puffed our way back up the hill to civilization!

I don't think they will forget that memory for a long time! Everyone had a great time......and a great workout!!!

We went back to our *home*, put babies down for naps while Scott took the older kids swimming. Later after we ate dinner, Sam, Sabrina and I took the Talisha, Savannah and Isaiah to the pool. They had a great time!!

What a day!!!!!