Something to Write About

Remember in school when you would get back from spring break and, inevitably, your first assignment was always: Write about what you did for spring break? While planning our NYC trip, I quickly realized we weren't doing anything for spring break becuase of the cost. My immediate thought was, "Oh, no! What will the kids write about when they get back from spring break?!" Yes, I know I'm a total nerd. Call me what you will. My kids are going to have something to write about when their teacher tells them to write!!

I had to think of something that we could do on a day trip or short overnighter. Thisis what I came up with. The kids had never been, even though it's less than a two-hour drive for us. We asked Papa to go with us, and we were on our way.

I had an extremely hard time trying to explain to the kids what they were going to see. I kept telling them we would go in elevator that would take us down under the ground into the middle of the mountain. Why I didn't think of the word "cave" is beyond me. That totally would have done it for them. When we got out of the elevator and walked into the big room, Blaine said, "We're in a cave!" Uh, yea. Duh, Mom! After I took this picture,I asked Blaine why he was posing that way. He said, "Because we're in a cave. That's why!" Again, duh, Mom!

After seeing the Caver hats, we, of course, hadto have one. With those and our audio guides, we were off!

At first, they would stop at every number station to get their audio lesson. Then I think the Mommy in Kylee came out. I mean, once you've seen staligmiteor stalagtiteyou've pretty much seen them all, right?That's what Kylee was thinking. While Joey and I stopped with Blaine on every, single audio guide number there was,Kylee talked Papa into moving on out with her. I couldn't even get a picture of them ahead of us they moved so fast! While I must admit I would have loved to pick up the pace with her, it was amusing watching Blaine be so interested in EVERYTHING the audio guide had to say. He would repeat it to us and point things out to us. It was pretty cool.

When we got back to the main room, Kylee and Papa were sitting on a bench waiting for us, wondering if we had "taken a nap." The elevator line to go back up was an hour wait, due to the elevator renovations they are doing. While we waited, Blaine discovered he could be a Junior Ranger, so he used his sister's backto fill out his book. While he was doing that, I ran into Brian Dillonwho I hadn't seen since high school or shortly thereafter.

When Blaine was finished with his paperwork, Kylee took him over to be sworn inas an official Junior Park Ranger.

Then up the elevator, through the gift shop, and out we went. And that, my friends, is what my kids will be writing about next Monday on their first day back to school!