Craters of the Moon

Mike didn't have to work on Monday, so we drove 90 miles to visit the Craters of the Moon National Monument. Carson has been interested in volcanoes lately, and this place is basically a bunch of cooled lava rock from several eruptions over the last several thousands of years. The kids loved it, especially Carson. He got to see a miniature volcano, lots of different lava rocks (I can't remember all their names), and of course the CAVES! The caves were created when lava on the surface cooled and liquid lava still flowed underneath it, forming "tubes." They were neat, and most of them were okay for me to go in as well. One was small and not deep, one was huge, with tall ceilings and holes in the ceiling often enough that it wasn't too dark for the most part. But it was a really long tunnel. There was one that was narrow at the opening, but we didn't go into that one. Mike and Carson want to the next time we visit. The last one was saw was still pretty tall, and I think large, though you're not allowed to go too far into it. But it was very dark, so the kids had to use their flashlights, which they thought was cool. It was a great activity, and I'm sure we'll go again sometime.
This was a large rock hill we climbed. It was a lot bigger and steeper than we originally thought, and I was pretty tired when we got to the top. This is Carson, Natalie, and Mike halfway up.
Carson, me and Natalie at what we first thought was the top, but it wasn't.

Here's us at the top. It was so windy there that the kids were nearly blowing over, literally. That's why my hair looks so funny. Oddly enough, neither kid complained about the wind. I guess there were too many other cool things to look at.

Here's a picture of the wasteland around, since very little grows with all that volcanic rock.

Natalie and Carson

Carson, Mike, and Natalie heading into the huge cave.

The family sitting outside the huge cave, once we finally made it through and out the other side.

Here's Carson with the butterfly that he caught. I was surprised, because I told him he wouldn't be able to catch it, since he didn't have a net or anything. But he did, so I ran and found a jar for it. He was so excited!

Natalie holding Carson's butterfly.

On Saturday, we went to check out the festivities by the river. The kids got their faces painted. Here's Carson's face:

And here's Natalie's face:

I was instructed by my doctor to take it easy over the weekend, so we opted not to go to the river to watch the fireworks. I really wanted to, but parking is awful, so we would have had to walk a couple of miles to get there, and again after they were over. Also, a neighbor got a bunch of fireworks from WY and invited us over the previous night to watch them. He had some cool ones, and the kids got their fireworks fix. So on Saturday, instead of watching the fireworks, we went to the drive-in and saw Toy Story 3 and Prince of Persia. Best date activity ever, because for $13 we get to see 2 movies. The first one is for the kids, and then they sleep in the back while Mike and I watch our movie. We bring our own popcorn, and we don't have to pay for a sitter. We do it at least once every summer.

Even though we missed the fireworks, we bought a few small ones to light with the kids. We forgot on Sunday, and on Monday I was having contractions, and Mike was really sick, so we did our fireworks on Tuesday evening. The kids had sparklers and pops, and then we lit a few small firecrackers. It was fun, even though it would have been more impressive in the dark. The kids didn't care, and I still got them to bed at a decent hour.
Here's everyone throwing pops:

Here are the kids with the sparklers: