Carlsbad Caverns

My mom and dad and sister Emily all came into town last week and while they were here we went to Carlsbad Caverns. If you have never been it is amazing. This is the beginning of the natural entrance. We all went into the cave this way except for my mom, grady and Emily's baby (Jace). My mom has a bum knee and since this hike is all down hill for 800 ft. we figured it would not be very smart for her to try to hike it, which worked out well to send the two little ones with her. So this first picture is at the beginning of the hike.

Here is Cayden and Ally, they did AWESOME!! Ally only complained of her legs hurting at the very end after hiking down for 45 minutes and then for an hour on the floor of the cave.

Here is my dear dad taking pictures for my mom. He was so cute, the first 10 minutes we were stopping every chance we got to take a picture and he would always say "me me will love this one" (meme aka my mom). We quickly decided we will never make it to the bottom if we don't move it along.

Here we go....

There was so many little walkways where you went in tunnel like areas and a few places you had to duck. For the most part it was wide open, it is a huge cavern, biggest in the US I think.

My dad and Cayden. It was so nice for Cayden to have my dad there because they both wanted to stop and read every sign and Cayden loved pointing every little thing out to my dad. From the picture it looks like the cavern is gray but it is not, it is much more colorful.

After we got to the bottom and met my mom with the two little kids (who took the elevator) we walked the loop of the "Great Room" which size was equivalent to 14 football fields, it took about an hour and was amazing. Jace was a trooper, he actually fell asleep in the backpack and his poor little head was bobbing all over the place.

I carried Grady most of the way on the bottom. There are some pretty good size drops, although there is a railing, but it still made me nervous. I told him over and over about the danger and that he could fall far far down. I think I may have overdone it, he was too scared to walk after that.

The kids with their meme and grandpa. They absolutely LOVED having them here. Funny thing, my mom came here 50 years ago with her grandma and now was here again with her grandkids. She told my kids that in 50 years they need to come back with their grandkids.

We had a great time and I am glad we made the trip.