Carlsbad Caverns Trip

We took a quick trip to the Carlsbad Caverns this past weekend.  It was well worth the 9 hour drive, (4.5 hours each way).  I probably wouldn't say that if the kids hadn't been little angels for the car ride like they were.  We drove there Thursday night, stayed at a ghetto hotel, then were in the caves all day Friday and traveled home that evening.   Natalie was our little "explorer extraordinaire", termed after one of her beloved Fancy Nancy books.  We bought her a lantern and she was our tour guide for about half the time.  And since the kids were so good in the caves, they each got to pick a stuffed animal from the gift shop at lunchtime.  Natalie of course got a bat and Blake got a mountain lion that he quickly named "Simba".  He's a little obsessed with Lion King right now.

We didn't stay to see the bat flight at night because we were tired and still had a long drive ahead of us.  One of these days we will.

Besides a few very dramatic tantrums on Blake's part (hopefully this phase will soon pass), the trip went without a hitch and we had a blast.  I think Natalie learned a lot too about different cave formations.  She started pointing out columns, stalactites and stalagmites by the end.

We hiked down the natural entrance to the cave first thing, rather than taking the elevator.  It's about a mile down and very scenic.  The air smelled heavily of bat poop, at least to my pregnant nose, because this is where the bats fly out each night.

Poor Blake kept trying to grab a quick nap because of his horrible night's sleep in the portacrib at the hotel.  He couldn't get comfortable, and his head kept flopping everywhere as Rob walked.

Almost 18 weeks preggers and feeling great.  I'm just glad my fleece zipped because it was about 52 degrees down there.

Sleeping baby...looks so uncomfortable

Natalie was pretty tired, too, after all our walking

Her bat.  She made cute little bat squeaks on the way home as she played with him.