Caves, Crawfish, Lightning Bugs, and Bullfrogs...

So for any of you who know how squeemish I can be, prepare to be amazed. On our trip we stopped in Missouri to visit Michael, Sarah, Conner, and Kaitlyn. They put me face to face with many creatures, and while I squealed many times, I did touch/hold many of them! Our first adventure was going to a cave... I think that I will call this segment "What was I thinking??" I thought we would just drive up to the cave and be there... What was I thinking?? We had to park and then hike to the cave.

Conner and Kaitlyn - the seasoned explorers couldn't wait!!

This is Mom (aka Erica), Evelyn, Samuel, and Hyrum as we set off to find the cave. With Sarah behind the camera, that may leave you wondering where Dad (aka Thayne), Michael, and Anna are...

Getting to the cave and then to the end of the cave with a baby had it's challenges... What were we thinking bringing a stroller AND a baby carrier?! In all fairness, Anna was asleep when we started our hike, but the bumpy ride quickly ended that!

The last part of the hike was actually a descent, you could literally feel the temperature drop. I believe it was called the Devil's Ice Box. It actually felt quite nice... you realize that more when you hike back up and out of the cave...

All of us at the beginning of the cave. The entrance is at the bottom left of the picture... You actually had to duck to get in the cave, but could stand up once inside.

Sarah and Evelyn in the cave. The kids loved all the times we got to wear the headlamps and use flashlights!

A group of us at the end of the cave. We are actually standing up on some rocks, instead of in the icy cold river... Getting up on the rocks was not so easy - in the words of Bear Grylls: "The rocks were "slippy."

Enjoying a quick snack after the hike. Now we are on our way to catch crawfish!!

Sarah giving some pointers on how to catch the crawfish... Here's the most effective way we found - - when you find a crawfish, hold the net just behind them and then spook them into the net with a stick!

The kids playing in the 'river' hoping to catch something... For a while, Samuel gave up on crawfish, he wanted to catch dragonflies. Can I just tell you - - the hardest part about catching those crawfish was finding them. As we walked through the river the water got muddy, and you couldn't see anything. Then when it settled again, the glare form the sun made it hard to look into and under the surface of the water. Not to mention the crawfish were a brownish color... kinda like MUD!

Like Father like Son... LOVE this one!!

Samuel with his crawfish! Way to go dude!

Conner and Kaitlyn examining a crawfish...

Here is Michael training Anna to accept and like creatures...

Look what a cute picture!! They made holding crawfish look so easy and fun we had to try it...

Although we are not nearly as composed as Michael and Sarah, I do love this picture! When Samuel saw this picture he said: "Eww, Mommy and Daddy are holding "crawl-fish"!! I forgot they called them that!

Here are the kids looking at their catches of the day! Can you tell who is ready for a nap?

See look, even I caught one! Actually, I am happy to report that everyone who wanted to, caught a crawfish (thanks to the expert eyes of Michael and Sarah).

Our adventure didn't stop there, later that day we went to the park.

While it was still light out, Michael and Sarah took the kids exploring around the lake. Guess what they found - - water snakes!!

With nets ready, the kids were ready to catch anything! - - Mostly moss!





Conner intently looking at something...

A quick meal to recharge the explorers...

Anna wins the award for cheesiest smile :) Kaitlyn and I enjoyed feeding her the "sticks of goodness" (aka cheetos).

Once it started to get dark, it was time to catch lightning bugs...

The kids did quite well catching bugs, but because we intended for them to catch lighning bugs (and they were catching both june bugs and lightning bugs), we showed them the difference between the 2 bugs...

But the kids didn't care, they were excited to put any and all the bugs they caught into their bug jars. Such a cute idea, but on the way home, at least one lightning bug escaped through the tiny slits in the top of the jar - - how do I know?? - - because I felt something tickling my arm (one of the WORST feelings ever!) I quickly brushed my arm and then checked the floor to see what it was... and there it was - I saw the lightning bug with it's bum glowing! AH!!

Apparently at night bullfrogs will freeze like a deer in the headlights. So after it got dark, we were ready to go bullfrog hunting. The first bullfrog Michael caught hopped back to the pond... but thanks to Michael's mad skills, he caught another one and let the kids hold it! Then Purple Monkeys started flying all around us!! (Just wanted to see if anyone actually made it this far down the post and was still reading...)

Some kids didn't have a problem holding the bullfrog...

Some even wanted to hold it...

Others were slightly repulsed at the thought of touching it!!

I wonder where Evelyn gets that?! Don't let my face fool you... I did hold that HUGE bullfrog, I even carried him back to the water's edge and let him go!! "It is not slime! It is MUCUS!!" While in Missouri we also enjoyed all you can eat popscicles, Catan, Boom Blox, a brownie bake-off with a clear winner (sorry Thayne, mine really are better, even if you wouldn't have burned yours...), and homemade ice cream!! Thanks guys we had a blast!

Where have we been??

Well, we have been to Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and back to Texas!

Did I mention it it good to be home? It is so nice to be home!! The kids are back on their normal schedules, I can shop at CVS again, and I can sleep in my own bed! But I must admit I really feel out of it socially... It feels like we've been gone for a year! The last couple days of our trip and the week when we got home, a severe stomach virus went through our family. No 2 people had the same symptoms, but here's the list of what symptoms we had on our home: nausea, vomiting, diareeah, headache, and fever. Fun... So for a while we were quaratined at home... Then when I went to church we find out that both the Primary and the Relief Society had been reorganized! It has taken me weeks to figure who is in what calling now!

Consider this post an introduction to our Travels... One big milestone we hit just out side Amarillo, Texas:


Yes, it's blurry, but that's our documentation, we hit 100,000 miles. It was a sad moment... It means our car is getting old... Ironically, not too long after that, we passed a landmark city for us Stancliffe's... To anyone else, you may not even notice when you pass this po-dunk town in Texas...


Why is it a landmark? Because growing up, our Suburban broke down here - in Henrietta, TX. It seemed like every trip we went on, the car broke down somewhere... On this particular break down, I believe the car wouldn't stop accelerating. My mom doesn't remember how she got it to stop, but it eventually did and we waited for our cousins who lived in Fort Worth to rescue us! Good times.

Total length of the trip was 2 weeks. We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to. Sorry if we didn't get to see you!!

The cheapest gas price we found was $2.45 and the most expensive was $3.09 (for the lowest grade gas - we didn't stop there...). Our car got the best gas mileage (almost 18 mpg) when we drove between 65-69 mph, anything above that decreased it (as low as 14 mpg).

I didn't calculate how many miles we drove or how many hours in the car... but it was a lot. We loved rest stops that were kid-friendly like this one:


There was a little playground that was great for the kids to climb all over and get some energy out...






There were also rocks in the playground area that Anna LOVED to eat :)


And this rest stop had tons of room to stretch those legs (notice the yellow sign in the picture? It is a warning sign for rattlesnakes,... that scared the kids a little, so we had to convince the kids it was ok to play, as long as we were carfeul)!! As you can see, they got over it quickly...