Mt. Timpanogos cave

We were going to go to our favorite spot, Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), for my birthday, but Reese's soccer tryouts developed complications, so we postponed our trip to CO for a few days. Which meant we'd be in town for my birthday. We'd been talking about going to the Mt. Timpanogos cave, so I thought it'd be an adventure to go there for my birthday!
My day started with another original song from Cameron, whooohoo! And a deluge of 'presents' from Aubree. She LOVES to color and tape up papers for presents, and spends a lot of time making lots of presents. In fact, under her bed, her dresser, and bookshelf overflow with them. I got a piece of it. It ended up taking two more days for her to unwrap them with me.

After sweet cards and pictures, we had lunch and drove to the trailhead.

Being a Saturday, it was crowded, but the rangers were friendly, and warned us at the trailhead of the dangers of the trail; falling rocks, possible rattlesnakes, and running off the cliffs. Cameron was worried a bit about those. None of the kids really liked the hike, though they all did great, carrying their own packs and water this time. It's a strenuous mile and a half, a steep switchback that rises 1,100 feet. Every few minutes Cameron would tell us 'I hate this'; I didn't know if it was a new thing he hated every time, or if he thought we'd forgotten. There were some great views though, even from the coolest pit potties near the top.

Aubree lasted a while, then asked for a ride. RD once again was the man, hauling her up the mountain.

She just looks too big to carry, huh?! That pack has been so awesome.
We got to the cave entrance about 20 min before our time slot, so went early with a group of 4. The abrupt coolness of the cave was welcome, and the kids eagerly pulled out their head lamps. The tour was great, a mile and a half hike through the mountain.

At one point we all turned off all the lights, and experienced the complete darkness. The ranger asked us to raise our hands if we wanted the lights back on, and when she switched her light on, the girls still had their hands up. My favorite parts were the 'heart of Mt. Timp", the 'kryptonite', and seeing the actual fault line, wild!

kinda creepy heart

the line between the different plates!

We made it thought!

The hike down was easier and faster, but I sure felt it in my knees. I felt a bit like a wimp going down with my knees getting sore, as many older people were coming up with no apparent problem. But then we also passed some tween girls actually crying as they hiked up, so maybe I'm ok. Getting older than 40 always seemed way too far away to really happen, but I'm closer to 50 than 20 now, and that's weird.
On the way down the mountain we caught up with 2 of the women in our tour, who were stopped on the trail waiting as a rattlesnake slowly ambled across the trail. The kids were  both scared and fascinated, and one declared we were all going to die (not for the first time). But the snake eventually settled in the rock wall by the trail, and we gently passed by on the other side of the trail. It was a conquest against fear and death for some of us, so it actually worked out well.
When we got back to our car we celebrated Reese for finding us a parking spot in the shade (1 of 3) so the car wasn't hot!
We collapsed into the car, and I ordered pizza for dinner while we drove home. Reese thought the cave wasn't worth the hike, the other kids were ambivalent, but it was worth having an adventure and making some great memories!
The rest of the evening we hung out, opened more of Aubree's presents, and ate 1 of 2 strawberry pies RD made me. Well, RD and I ate most of it (mostly me), while the kids had just the ice cream. Strawberry pie is mostly fruit, so eating half a pie for breakfast the next day totally works. In fact, it's awesome.