SPRING BREAK!

OK, so before it was all said and done, Matt and I both ended up with whatever Jace and Brett had.  We were supposed to head to Odessa for a little visit and to attend Matt's cousin's wedding the first weekend of Spring Break, but Matt was really sick by the time Friday came and we just couldn't make it.  So, we ended up have recouperating time over spring break which turned out to be really nice.  Jace actually had a relapse  week before and ended up with walking pneumonia and so it was just as well that we didn't go.

Anyway, we did some fun family stuff instead and caught up on housework and laundry and grocery shopping that all went by the wayside while Mom and Dad were both sick!  And we decided to check out some local attractions that we had never done before.  First up...

Cave Without a Name

First picture, a bat...see the little guy in the middle of the picture?

And a cool looking column in the cave...

Below is the obligatory fried egg, which you see in every cave, and some bacon to go with it!

We had to have our pictures taken down in the cave!!!

And after our cave adventure, the boys got to pan for gemstones and there they are in front of a giant geode (I'm mean to make them take a picture with the sun in their eyes like that!).

After the cave, we headed to Longhorn for burgers...the boys were happy to check out their gemstones while we waited on our food.  You can tell we all just got over the plague if you look at our eyes, but we were so happy to get out of the house!  We had a great time!

We had so much fun at Cave Without a Name, that we decided to visit Cascade Caverns a couple days later.  Unfortunately, it was rainy-ish and cold that day but Matt and I decided that since caves generally hold their temperature year round that it would be a fun thing to do.  hmmmm...er no...

We we get to Cascade Caverns, and it's like this run down little ghost town.  All the buildings are borded up and we had to really search for the "gift shop" which was crappy.  We found out that the owners are new and they are trying to rebuild, so we'll give them a break.

It was so cold and windy that we took these pictures really fast so we could go inside to wait for the tour.  There was this giant T-Rex thing outside that was once a movie prop (some movie was filmed here like 30 years ago or something).  Here's Jace and Brett with T-Rex.

Matt feeding Brett to the T-Rex

Waiting inside for the tour...

OK, so I know this picture isn't very good, but can you see all the water dripping down the walls to the left and the puddle on floor to the right?  Yeah.  I've been on quite a few cave tours and this is the wettest one I've ever been in.  So great for my son who had walking pneumonia.  I'm such a great mom!

So this was the last picture I took...the one above was with a flash and this one was without (we were just starting the tour).

I'm sure you're wondering why this would be the last picture???  Well, about 15 minutes into the tour (we were more than half-way down), the power goes out and the guide's flashlight quit working.  So at first, she says we have to leave the cave because it's their safety policy.  Then she says since we're already almost down that if everyone agrees we can go on a flashlight tour (someone on the tour had a flashlight and we all had our cell phones), that we still have time before the cave fills up with water (WHAT?!?).  We all agree that since we're almost there, that we'll go ahead and pretty soon a couple more guides come down to help and they have plenty of light.  So, we go on down and it was worth it for a while, we got to see some really cool solution bowls in the ceiling of the last 2 rooms that form when water fills the cave and whirlpools form and carve out bowls in the rock over lots and lots of years.  Then we start to head out.  The closer we get to the exit, the wetter it becomes.  We come to the 2nd to the last room and it is ankle deep with water.  Unfortunatly, Jace is leading us and takes off into the water before Matt can pick him up to keep his feet dry.  Oh well...maybe we can get real pneumonia now!!!  Anyway, we make it out and Jace and I run to the car where blast the heat and get his wet pants, socks and shoes off of him and throw a dry sweatshirt over him.  You'd think they would refund our cave fee...no, but we did get free patches from the gift shop!  Yay!  Then we decide that since we had such an adventure that we'll just order Dominoe's and warm up.  We went home to get warm baths, watch a movie and eat pizza!  You have to admit that it was a better story than a dry cave...and the best part was, no one got sick again!