Oregon Trip Day 4

We woke up after a cold night in the Montana mountains.

Dad got breakfast going.

We got the kids dressed.

Jackson and Andy played cars out on the picnic table.

Perfection.

We all piled in to B & E's van to drive up to the cavern entrance "just up the hill".

hahaha.

After 15 minutes of roller coaster worthy twists, turns, and steep inclines, we reached the top.

Lewis and Clark Caverns is named after the explorers Lewis and Clark (obvi) since the cavern overlooks over 50 miles of the trail from the Lewis and Clark Expedition along the Jefferson River, although Lewis and Clark never saw the cavern.

I relied on Erica again for photos because this place was a better adventure than the last caves with a lake ,

a slide- yes, we all (including pregnant SIL) had to sit down and slide down the limestone floor at one point,

and paths that I couldn't describe any better than "tricky" as there was not a good place to put your hand or foot for balance.

At one point the tour guide was telling a very dramatic story of a cave worker who snuck in to the cave at night alone, with a lantern (it was a long time ago), to steal some of the best rock formations. He slipped and dropped his lantern and was left in complete darkness for 3 days until the other workers found him. By then, he was crazy. Literally. Anyway, during the story, right when she said he dropped his lantern, she shut off the lights in the cave for dramatic impact, for it would have been completely dark with absolutely no hint of light- so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face. Unfortunately for our tour group, Jackson, Andy, Nate and Lauren all had their own flashlights. When the tour guide hit the lights, Jackson's flashlight was on. Ben hurried to cover it, just for Andy to turn his on! Then Nate, the Lauren. I kid you not. Ben apologized to the group who muffled laughter. We felt bad for killing the moment, but couldn't help but laugh too.

Cute pictures of the kids all together in the exit tunnel leading out of the cave to come, from Erica.

After that, we broke camp and continued West.

A couple of cute stories that happened on the drive the day before it had rained coming out of Yellowstone. When it stopped, we saw a complete rainbow! (one of the many rainbows we saw on the trip- Andy was always the one to eye-spy them). As we drove past "the end of the rainbow" grandpa gave the boys each a gold coin because we made it to the end of the rainbow. With smiles on their faces, the turned their coins over and over again studying them. Isn't he a great grandpa?

I am not sure when it started, but at some point in the trip, my mom was dozing off and Andy exclaimed, " We got a nodder!" a classic line from the movie Cars (see here). I know you won't believe me, but he probably said it two thousand times on the trip after that. Any time there was a lull in conversation Andy would exclaim, "We GOTTA NODDER!" And since it usually provoked laughter, he would said it again and again and again.

My parents, bless their hearts, never once complained (at least to me) about traveling with my kids. The only minutes on silence was when both boys were asleep at the same time- which was not often. Andy felt the need to fill the air with singing, commentating the drive, point out anything he saw interesting, ask if he could climb on every mountain he saw, play in every river, lake, pond or puddle, eat at every Old Mc Donalds.... you get the idea. Every time I answered his inquiry with "no"... (which was every time he ask a question), it would go like this:

Mom! Look at that mountain! Should we go there? Should we go there, Mom? Can we climb it?

- No, not today. Maybe next trip.

Maybe next time?

- Yeah

Maybe tomorrow?

-No

Maybe later?

-Yeah.

Mom! Look! A river! A river, Mom! Should we go there? Should we go there, Mom? Can we play in it?

- No, not today.

Maybe next time?

-Yeah

Maybe tomorrow?

-No

Maybe later?

-Yeah

.. and so on. I tried to change my answers to discourage this such as, we need to get to our next campsite or maybe when we go on a trip with dad, or you're too little climb a mountain, maybe when you are older, etc. It didn't matter my answers, the questions still followed the same order. The. entire. drive. But since it comes out of this adorable face

I let it slide.

This night I had not booked a campsite, but printed off a couple of different options along the route. The first one we checked out was... um.... how do I say this... it wasn't that it was run-down, it was just never get good in the first place. We didn't even pull in. We scooped the loop and headed back out of town. The next place was right off of the interstate and was by far the worst place we stayed with trucks pulling in and out all night. We survived knowing the next night we would be in Portland and in a hotel! Woo hoo!