Girl Time

  
SB and I are very good about one-on-one time with the girls, but with the upcoming addition of Little Man, I have been even more intentional. 

Cave Camping
 

So...last Friday, AB and I headed off to go cave camping with some of our Girl Scouts.  AB was going to earn her red petal - Strong and Courageous.  Cave camping was just perfect!!

 

We left right after school.  (This was RIGHT after getting our referral information - post below.)  We carpooled with another mom and daughter.  It's about a 2 hour drive.  We got there at 6:30, and then packed in our "stuff" in around 7:30.  I was pretty proud of my packing.  I knew I had to pack light, because it's about 1/2 mile trek to the mouth of the cave.  AB did a great job helping with everything.  We wanted to be at the front of the line and get first dibs on sleeping spots.  We were told NOT to be by the bathrooms.

 

Here are the stong and courageous Girl Scouts (Abby, Maison, AB and Kate) hanging out before we head to the cave.

After we found a spot to "set up camp", we got ready for the "Wild Tour".  It is a 2 1/2 to 3 hour tour -500 ft below ground - full of tight squeezes, cave crawling, ladders, clay mud puddles and a couple of stories along the way.  Before you can go on this tour, you have to be able to squeeze through a box.  And, I do mean squeeze.  I'm a pretty small person, and I had to turn my head sideways to do it.  (Of course, I was wearing a hard hat.)

  

This is not from our group.   But this is the box that you have to crawl through.  I'm not sure why he isn't wearing his hat.  Everyone in our group had to do it with their hat on.

These folks were not on our tour, but we this is a glimpse of the tour.

AB and I had a great time on the tour.  She scurried along the whole time saying, Momma hurry up.  Needless to say, it was a tad easier for her to get through those tight spots than it was for Momma to army crawl through those same spaces.  Then, we hit bubble gum alley.  (It's called bubble gum alley, because it is so sticky that you literally will lose your shoes if they aren't tied super tight.)  MUD!  And I mean MUD!  The mom, who organized the trip and had been many times with the Boy Scouts, said that she had never seen the water that deep. Well, there go our shoes - soaked.  The only incident I didn't quite plan for.  I had extra shoes in the car, because I knew ours would be worthless after the cave, but I didn't count on them being totally soaked while in the cave.  Luckily, this was close to the end of the tour.  We finished the tour around 10:30, cleaned up, had a snack and got ready for bed.  We opted out of the 2 hour walking tour that started after the adventure tour. 

 

You sleep on the floor in a open area of the cave.

 

This is not from our group, but this is the room you sleep in.

 

AB giving me the thumbs up on her sleeping arrangements.

Sleep?  Well, lights didn't go out until 1 am, and people started stirring about 5:30 am or so.  I thought for sure that AB would be out as soon as her head hit the pillow.  Wrong!  She didn't go to sleep until lights out.  We got out up around 6:45 and had breakfast in the cave.  Then, we packed everything up and headed out.

  

Kate and AB after breakfast

 

AB and I outside the cave as we were leaving.  We had a great time together!!!

 

 

Arts Collaboration Day

Well, what do you do the weekend after cave camping...you get all dressed in pink and go to the opera and ballet. 

my two beauties in pink :)

Our local Opera House and Ballet had an Arts Collaboration Day for children.  For $5 a ticket, the children saw The Three Little Pigs Opera and The Singing Tortoise Ballet.  I wasn't sure if the girls would like the opera.  They really enjoyed it.  The story was really well-done and a great way to introduce them to something a little different.  And, of course, they loved the ballet.  I knew that they would enjoy it.  The music was fun and the story was pretty easy to follow.

 

We had a good time together!