Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Lava fields and cave walking

Today was interesting because we headed to the lava fields near Sunriver. We first went to hear the ranger speak and then we were off and running. We rented lanterns and headed down into the earth for a mile or so. It dropped from 89 degrees to 41 degrees. It was fun, cool, scary, and the kids did great. We may have left 1-2 small deposits of urine down there (kids of course), but left the rest in tact. It has been non-stop fun for the kids. They are all playing great together and having a lot of fun.


It's amazing that we got any shots at all with all the kids sitting in place for any sort of time because they were more interested in the chipmunks running around the park. Behind them sits the Lava fields that we came to see.







Here is Ranger Rick who actually did a really good job. We learned a lot from him about Volcanoes










Rebecca was intent on listening and taking everything in that the Ranger said.












We were given a time that our group could drive up the Butte and so we wound up the Butte. At one point, I think my sister stood out of her sun roof to take a picture.










Hannah showing off a little of her "bling" with the sun glasses but also a good shot of the look out tower at the top of the Butte.










Kids at the top of the Butte. They thought it was so cool because you could see which way the lava came out and the pattern it followed.









Another picture atop the Butte where the kids stood relatively still. We tried taking the first picture and found out that Noah and Nolan were missing, which wasn't much of a big surprise.







Scott and Lara's family atop the Butte

Our clan. It takes a lot of time catching all of your own kids when they are running around the mountain.

Stacy and Tom's family

Mike and Andrea's family.

Dana often times got the pleasure of walking with Noah and Nolan since they seek him out when they are looking for a partner to walk with or hold hands with. They love their older cousin.

I know this seems strange to catch Jonah in a sitting position and not moving much. He was tired from running and I found him looking out over the view. It wasn't much time before he was up and running again.

Great picture of Rebecca and my mom waiting at the top. It was a beautiful day.


Andrea is going to love me for this picture. It had to be taken though.
Tired and hot kids atop the butte!

Then it was off in the car on our way to one of the caves. We rented lanterns at the entrance and started the long walk down. None of us knew which kids wouldn't want to go, but I just think they had no idea of what we were going. You could feel the temp drop just by walking into the opening. It was cool

Noah immediately found Rebecca and he wasn't too sure about this whole thing. He was smart to stay with the one who had one of the lanterns.

We would walk down some stairs then up some stairs and we finally got far enough down that it felt like we were walking on a sand river bed. They said water had never been in there but it had been carved out by lava. Some of the kids still wanted to know if there was going to be lava in the caves. Luckily we could re-assure them that the cold temps meant no lava.

Stacy hoofed it with Sophia on her back-what another 35 pounds? Sophia loved it.

Like I said, Noah was too sure of the whole experience but he did start warming up a bit after awhile.

We got someone to take our picture which turned out great. This is all 22 of us. I don't think the caves will ever be the same after we all went through them.

Rebecca showing Noah how the cave walls were wet. Noah didn't understand how the water got inside.

Noah took this picture of us, which turned out pretty good.

There were parts of the caves which did get quite smaller, but the kids thought that was great because we all had to duck.

Rebecca, Noah, and Andrea

Some of the chaotic times were when we all had to wait for one another and make sure we had everyone.

At the end, some when on ahead as the cave got down to a crawl on your belly while the others stayed back and then slowly started walking back up the long tube.

All the kids did a great time on the hike and really took care of each other. Jacob had a time where he got nervous, but all his cousins and aunts and uncles really helped him through that.

The light at the end of the tunnel. It was good to see that. It was strange to come out into the 80 degree air from 41. It felt good.

The last few steps. The kids were hungry so we all went back to catch some grub.

Thought I would catch Lara drinking some coffee.

Jonah and Isabelle dressed up in "nice" clothes and going on a pretend date. All the cousins had fun dressing them up.

I wasn't there for this scene, I was asleep on the couch so I'm not sure what was going on.

Once we got home, Jacob went off and grabbed tape and water bottles to make some sort of floating contraption. He was in his glory.We had a fun day, great food, and we were all tired by the end. Tomorrow we are floating the river. Wish I could take my camera but my luck would be that the camera would float to the bottom of the river. Until then. Robb reporting from camp LeRoy

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