Timpanogos Cave

Saturday, we finally made it up to the Timpanogos Cave with Grandpa Hatch and Pam. We have been planning this hike for about a month and things kept getting in the way. But we did it!! I think the kids did awesome! I was amazed at how steep the hike was compared to how I remembered it. I was totally winded, and having contractions and needing to stop like every two minutes, all the way up there. It was really hard for me!!! I think we were a little slow for Pam, she went on ahead of us, and luckily we got there a little early to head on up for our tour, but we really made good time for having a walking 3 year old, and a baby on the shoulders. Nate was amazing by the way.... he carried Noah pretty much the whole time. There's no way I could do that. It was a good time with Grandpa though.





We parked by this little river to eat our sandwiches while we waited for grandpa.



Nate took a lot of these with his phone!




I just love these pictures with all my cute kids all together. Too bad Noah's not more into having arms around him :)

(I cannot believe people think I "don't look pregnant"!!!!! I'm like a big blob!!!) Cute kids though... look how happy Noah is! All smiles. Love this one.

Nate took this one.... love it!

Noah practiced his jumping skills on this step while we waited. Funny the things that will entertain these little people.

Nate took this one too.... we need to get him a camera.... he takes some pretty cool shots! Not that his phone doesn't take good pictures, I just think this would be even more amazing with a real camera!

I love this one too.... my kids are so adorable.

About 3/4 of the way up there Charity announced that she doesn't like hiking. At least she's honest. And actually, she refrained from complaining the whole rest of the hike once she got those feelings out. She did good though. Kelly held Grandpa's hand the whole time. No complaining at all.... They made up some songs and she taught him all of her school songs. It was fun. Bradley was INCREDIBLE!!! The kid is AWESOME on hikes. He was totally gungho the whole time, running up ahead and then running back. Climbing up on rocks everytime we had to stop for a break. He really didn't stop the whole time. It was neat to watch him get so into it all. He really didn't seem tired at all which is funny since on little walks up the street, his legs will get tired when we're 100 feet away from our house! I loved watching him have fun though. Luke did really good too. Not too much to complain about. He kept reminding us that the rules were, "no falling off the mountain!" and "no getting hit with the rocks". So adorable. I love how he is. He held my hand most of the time, but ran up ahead a little bit too. He was so funny when we got to the top... "Mommy, we made it to the top and we didn't fall off the mountain!!" Very cool. Noah rode on Nate's shoulders about 98% of the time. He walked a little, but not really enough to speak of. He was pretty tired when we got to the cave and took a lot of finagling to get him to keep quiet while we were in there. I felt bad for everyone else that was with us, but it was just so unlike him.... we weren't sure what to do. He fell asleep shortly after we got out of the cave and my Dad so generously carried him most of the way down. Nate got him the rest of the way down.

Not sure if I like this picture of me, but I love how Charity is putting bunny ears on herself :)

Inside the cave. I totally didn't remember how tight this cave is. I'm glad I'm not any bigger, I may not have fit through some of the really tight spots!

We sat down at the end of the hike and it took us all about an hour to finally get back up. I think overall it was a good hike. I'm really impressed with how well the kids did, and that my baby didn't fall out (as Luke puts it) while we were up there. Fun times, we'll have to do this one again.