Apples and Caves

One rainy day in September, we went down to Santaquin to pick some apples. We've bought apples at this place before but never picked them ourselves!

Clementine liked it best. She was so pleased about the whole idea, and had to be forcibly restrained from taking a big bite out of every single apple she found!

I love Ziggy inserting himself into the foreground of this picture

When you have nine people picking apples, your bags fill up very fast. We had to stop everyone after only a few minutes or we would've had to pay for 40 bushels of apples by the time we were done.

And then we bought apple cider donuts, of course!

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We had a school unit on Caves and took the opportunity to visit Timpanogos Cave, which I haven't been to since I was a little girl! And do you know WHY I haven't? Because sometime around when Sam and I were first married, a little child fell off the edge of the trail up to the cave and died! I just couldn't ever bring myself to take my little kids up after that. And even now, I didn't want to take anyone very small! So we planned our field trip for a day when Sam could stay home with Gus and Clementine. I figured the rest of them were capable of staying away from cliffs!

It's a nice hike up. Steep, but pretty.

The cave itself is great. I didn't remember any of it (except how dark it is when they turn off the lights). Ziggy took a liking to the ranger who was our guide (I had told him that Park Rangers are kind of like policemen) and chatted to him companionably, asking lots of questions that the ranger didn't seem to quite want to engage with. To be fair, many were questions like "What if someone does touch part of the cave? Would they go to jail?" So maybe it's just as well.

I realize that without anything else in the pictures for scale or context, these cave formations just look like a mass of abstract shapes, but I like them anyway.

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Since everyone liked Timp Caves so much, I mustered up the wherewithal to plan a trip to Lehman Caves as well! We've been there a couple other times when the big boys were little, but since it's a 3+ hour drive one way, I knew it would have to be an all-day excursion, so the timing had to be right. Finally we found a day Sam could get free (even though at the last moment he started having second thoughts because he was so busy…but he decided to come anyway and he was so glad he did! It was a much-needed break from the grind for him). Malachi had to work, sadly, but Seb said he wanted to come along! So it was nearly all of us, which always feels like such a gift.

The drive is pretty…in its way. I don't mind the West Desert as long as I don't compare it with anywhere like Oregon!

There was some excitement with having to get off the road for some big oversize loads. A policeman came driving toward us in our lane with lights flashing to warn us and help us get out of the way. That was thrilling for certain parties among us, as you can imagine.

We were a little afraid we'd be late getting to our tour, but it turns out (I don't know why I didn't remember this, because it happened to us last time too) the time zone changes just as you cross the border into Nevada, so we ended up having an extra hour.

While we were waiting for our tour, we all just sat around talking about how cute Clementine was in her bunny coat. The topic occupied us for some time.

Finally we got inside. I love Lehman Caves! It's a much prettier place than Timp Caves, really. More decorated. I do kind of wish I could have seen it before all the paved walkways and other improvements were made! But I do appreciate the ease of walking through it, and the electric lighting which lets you see all the beautiful details!

We had our picnic and played at the little playground in Baker we always stop at. I think they've invested in some new bouncy animals! I'm sure there were only two or three last time. But Daisy was inexplicably drawn to the same bouncy horse she rode years ago:

Aw, and look at little Malachi! He looks like a less-blond Gus.