10 year anniversary adventure Part 4: Lava Bed National Monument and friends.

Thursday morning we woke up celebrating our official 10 year anniversary day.  James had been up most of the night helping kids fall back to sleep.  I was unaware of all the night roaming and feeling sorry for James decided to give Papa some time to catch up on sleep.  The kids and I ate breakfast and hung out did laundry and watched TV while Papa slept.  Then we hit the open road for some more fun.  Off to the Lava Bed National Monument.  

We drove to California.  Yippee covering three states so far.  The drive with breath taking and Everett slept which was a bonus.  

I love puffy clouds.  James took this picture for me.

Cute family fun

When we arrived at the information Center we explored the museum and checked out some big flash lights.  James talked with a ranger about the best caves to explore and we all got excited to go  underground.  

watching an ant carry a large bread crumb. 

The first Cave we descended was called Mushpot.  It's a great beginner cave.  The cave was lit the entire way with signs describing lava flow terminology.  The kids really enjoyed exploring this cave   

We saw a hawk. 

Mushpot entrance

 

Next we explored Valentine Cave.  It was discovered by Euro Americans on Valentine's day. The cave had several divisions.  We enjoyed taking turns picking the direction we would go.  This tunnel was a bit scarey for Gwenevere and Grace.  Their were low points where you had to crawl and Papa had the girls turn off all their lights to see what total darkness felt like.  It was a good experience for everyone.  

 

After exploring Valentine cave for a while we decided to check out one last cave even though the girls where vocal about not going in another cave.  this time I carried Grace in my backpack and James carried Everett in his arms.  We went to Skull cave.  This cave is named because when it was discovered by Euro Americans it had lots of animal bones in it.  Probably for Modoc spiritual purposes.  The cave entrance was HUGE lighting the cave a good 100 yard in.  The light seemed to easy the girls fears and then we started our decent down three flights of stairs.  When we reached the bottom we saw Ice in the chamber.  The girls LOVED it.  We hurryed back to the information center to return our lights before they closed but wished we had time to explore more.  I guess we'll have to come back.  ;-)

After Leaving the Lava National Monument we drove to our friends house for dinner.  The kids had so much fun playing with O and M and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with Brenley about homeschooling.  We are blog buddies and this was the first time meeting since probably bumping into each other through the Fanno Creek ward.  

It was getting late so we said our goodbyes and headed back to the resort.  

Once we finally got all the kids to sleep James and I enjoyed some cuddle time eating cheese cake.  That night all the kids slept through the night.  

Day 5 was definitely a success.