One of the items on our Wanna Do 2014 List was “explore a cave.” I’m a bit claustrophobic, so this wasn’t a high on my priority list…but I’ll do most anything for my boys. The cave I picked was one I’d been to as a teen and I thought the boys would enjoy it. Since it was 3 hours away, we decided to make a mini-vacation out of it.
We headed up to Logan to spend the night. We made a stop at the BlueBird Cafe for dinner.
The boys loved the restaurant.
We were in a room with a mural around the walls that spanned more than a hundred years of Logan and Ricky loved picking out all the details.
The boys were really well behaved … and Bobby didn’t even leave much of a mess behind!
The boys were so well behaved, that an elderly gentleman came over and complimented us on them. He was the mission president from Ogden who was visiting the temple that day, and asked if we took our boys out to eat often to practice behaving so well. Kevin laughed and said, “This IS their practice!”
We were able to find a hotel room to accommodate our crew of 7. Three queen-sized beds that called for jumping on … much to the momma’s annoyance.
Bobby couldn’t resist the pipes under the sink. Every time he got down to crawl, he went straight for them.
We couldn’t be so close and not stop by Utah State for some Aggie ice cream.
While they loved the ice cream, I think the boys loved rolling down the hill outside even more. Bobby didn’t roll, but he crawled up and down and up and down …
When bedtime came the boys took a little while to settle down since they aren’t used to all being in the same room. Bobby was especially funny – he kept calling out for his brothers, bouncing in his bed, and then he found the light switch … we moved his crib shortly after that.
The next morning we were up nice and early so we could drive up to Idaho. Minnetonka Cave is the cave I was planning to take the boys to, but I’d found out about an Ice Cave in Paris, Idaho that we thought we’d check out. That was where we decided to start.
It isn’t a very large cave, but it was chilly and still had ice and snow.
Another family came in while we were exploring and I practiced my eaves-dropping skills. Apparently, the man’s father used to frequent the cave 30+ years ago and he shared some fun facts. The rocks the boys are climbing below used to be the ceiling of the cave. It was dynamited and opened up.
Kevin and Ricky were more adventurous than the rest of us. They crept farther into the cave and found another room with a pond in it. According to my eaves-dropping, that room used to be a fun ice skating spot for the locals.
Billy wanted to tag along with Kevin and Ricky, but since their only source of light was Kevin’s cell phone – I said, “no way!”
Just a word of caution…it is a very long dirt road with a lot of pot holes and cows to get to the Ice Cave. Consider yourselves warned. Rusty said of this road, “I don’t get why this road goes on and on forever!”
After exploring the cave, it was time for lunch. We hit a local burger joint and ate our lunch on stumps …
To go into Minnetonka Cave, you have to have a ticket time. Ours wasn’t until 4 pm, so after lunch, we killed time at Bear Lake.
We pulled into Bear Lake State Park and the ranger warned us that it was really busy that day. He even went so far as to say, “You aren’t going to have any fun!”
He was totally wrong.
The boys were in heaven!
It was busy, but we found a good spot for our blanket and splashed and played in the sand.
The boys didn’t want to leave when it was time to head to the cave.
Bobby had fun eating the stinky sand and letting the water play with his toes.
The final stop of our mini-vacation was Minnetonka Cave.
It is a large cave with 444 stairs into the center and then those same 444 stairs back out again. The boys did great and didn’t complain about the climbing at all. But Rusty and Tommy did have this little conversation …
After climbing a few sets of stairs, Rusty said, “No wonder they call it 100 steps!” To which Tommy replied, “I was here yesterday and counted that there ARE 100 steps!” (to which I said in my head, “um, what?”)
Once you reach the heart of the cave, they turn the lights off. The older boys really liked that but not Bobby. He’d been a bit tired and cranky up until that point, but after the lights came back on, there was little to console him. Kevin finally found a position that Bobby liked and had to carry him out the rest of the way across his arm!
On our way out Rusty needed to use the restroom, so I took Rusty and Tommy and we sped ahead of the tour group …
We made it to the restroom in time and had fun watching and chasing chipmunks as we waited for the rest of our family to come out of the cave.
It was a totally fun little vacation and the boys are already making plans to go back to those caves again someday!