Craters of the Moon

We took a day trip this week with our kiddos to Craters of the Moon. It's been over a two years since we've been, and it was fun to see what the boys remembered! Of course we went at the wrong time, again!! If you recall from last time we went, the weather was really bad- cold, cold, cold!! So, as the not as smart as we would like to be parents we are, we decided that it's a ton warmer outside, and we should just go for it!! HOWEVER, the day we went was extremely WINDY!!!!! ( the last picture is of us trying to stand on the ash mountain, but the wind was blowing over 50 mph up there, and our skinny kiddos couldn't hold their own. We never made it to the top.)
Soooo, to try to salvage our trip, we went caving!! My boys love it so much anyway, and we were out of the wind. Surprising how nice it really was out of the wind! In fact, we could have spent all day down inside exploring the different caves, if not for a few factors:


1. The kids wouldn't have taken the flashlights out of my car. I am a mom who is usually prepared (extra water, blankets, food, etc. in the car, including flashlights- which have come in handy on several occasions!) However, today I was pleasantly surprised to find not one out of five flashlights in my storage! So, two of the four caves were out of the question.

2. The fire out on the INL. Coming out of Indian cave and heading to the next one, we noticed a small plume of smoke in the distance. Remember the wind I was talking about earlier? By the time we came out of the next cave, the smoke was drowning the horizon. We knew we could probably still get home, but thought it best to pack up. Plus, we had two kiddos who were desperate for a nap by then!!

We really had a great time there. Carson and Colton absolutely LOVE exploring, climbing, and leading us through each cave. Weston loved climbing, too- hey, he is my best climber out of all the kids! He would actually cry if we tried to carry him or help him over something! Brooklynn, however, is too girly. She complained in every cave we went into about the slimy rocks, dirt on her shoes, and even the smells in each cave (they didn't smell). She didn't want to touch anything that was ooey-gooey or even dirty, and was afraid of spiders when the caves got small!