I'm back, briefly

I am back. I applaud my hubby for taking us all on a vacation. The kids had a blast. They rode roller coasters, saw dinosaurs, pet pygmy goats, watched mummies at the IMAX, swam in the pool, slept in a hotel room... and went spelunking.

Ohhhhh the cave.

I read The Ransom of Mercy Carter about the 100 mile march the Native Americans took the settlers on after kidnapping the kids from their homes back in the 1700's. The difficult kids, and the ones they didn't think would last through the march got tomahawked in the beginning.

The cave was 3/4 of a mile in and the same back. I'd have been tomahawked well before the 2 mile mark on that march for sure.

A mile and a half and I started to wonder if I'd ever make it out alive. It didn't help that the footing was this rough pumice stone and I had the little man strapped to my chest, so I was wiggling all over the place trying to stay upright. And if you fall, it's this nasty rough horrible stone, so I couldn't fall. Nor could I touch the sides of the cave to steady myself because apparently the slime is some sort of ecosystem that is protected.

Plus - IT'S SLIME!!!!

And then you're going down hill, into the dark that is so dark if you turn off you're light you might as well have your eyes closed. Plus it's windy from to "skylights" that don't actually shed light, so they should be called "sky wind holes". Plus it's like 40 degrees.

And I'm not so much an outdoors girl anyway.

The little man made a sound that clearly said "Are you sure you know what you're doing because that looks like a big dark scary hole to me" on the way in.

Amen brother.

By the time we reached the end, he'd had it. His subtle cues to get him out of there clearly weren't working so he resorted to a full on scream for the whole 3/4 mile back. Someone passing me told me he thought the cave was haunted. I told him that it was.

I'm trekking now. I keep calling out to my 7 year old to watch for rocks. My 2 year old who kept telling us she could handle it and didn't need to hold our hands is now telling my hubby "I can't handle it!" and needed to be carried out. I'm weaving all over the place because my center of gravity is officially gone and I'm saying "To heck with the ecosystem!" and using the sides of the cave to steady me.

Oh, and my 7 year old was shrieking whenever something would drip on her from the ceiling. It was slime after all and her hair was washed thoroughly when we got to the hotel.

Finally, we got out. I think this was the point when my little man decided he hated vacations and did not really smile till we got back home 4 days later.

We leave again on Thursday and this time are driving all night to get to California. I think I should start on the meds about now just to be sure... no, no, the trip will be FINE! No one will get car sick. No one will hit their sister. No one will scream his head off for hours. Noooooo...... it'll be fine...