Vacation #2

When you're camping fires are an important part of the picture. We sent Toby out for wood in the morning. This is what he came back with! I was skeptic that he wouldn't be able to cut it down to size. But as it turns out Toby can put his mind to anything, if he wants. As it turns out John loves to climb rocks! He was having so much fun climbing on and jumping off. All morning long.

Toby splitting the log. I think he cut it into about 6 or 7 pieces, I was quite amazed!

We had to change campsites the second morning we were there. It quite the ordeal, three tents, 2 bear boxes, clothes for 11 people. The first campsite was tiered and backed into the mountains, it was so cool. The second one was flat and really close. It felt like a step down at first, but in the end I enjoyed it. Here is a view from the picnic benches. The boys were in this close tent, Eric and Leah were in the red one, James and I and the girls and John were in our tent next to Eric and Leah's.

Bryce and the other kids had so much fun using the logs as guns, so they could play Starcraft...apparently 3 days without a tv or computer makes you have to be creative and play your own computer games.

In the afternoon we went to Crystal Cave. They don't sell any tickets at the Cave so you have to buy them and then drive for an hour to the cave. It's a total commitment. But the drive there is beautiful. It is a long and windy road, which doesn't really say much because all the roads up there are pretty windy!

Josh, what a goof ball. Sometimes he takes the funniest pictures. Once you've driven for an hour it's a 1/2 mile hike down to the cave. It's pretty steep, but gorgeous.

The hike down.

The entrance to the cave. It was beautiful. I have been in 2 other caves in my life, neither one of them had quite a grand entrance. The opening was huge! Once you got to the bottom of the trail you could feel the cool air coming out. It was a warm day, and pretty humid, the cave felt like air conditioning!

James and the kids at the entrance to the cave. James wore John in the backpack down the trail, but we couldn't wear the backpack in so John was running around happy to be free.

In the cave while I was taking pictures I thought they were a lot better than they actually turned out to be. But here are a couple of the inside of the cave. It was amazing!

This is the top of one of the rooms, the stalacmites starting to grow down.

The hike back was a 1/2 mile up the hill we just came down. It was hot and the end of the day, I fell behind, but I totally enjoyed the view. The trail was beautiful.

Splitting logs was a reoccuring theme on this trip. Eric got this log and was determined to break it down. James and Eric worked for a while to break it up using the two hatchets we had, it was actually quite comical.

The greatest entertainment was when Eric felt that the hatchets were no longer needed and he would just break the log apart with his bare hands....and he did