Father's Day!

Every year we look forward to Father's Day so we can celebrate what an amazing Daddy we have in our family! We started the day by making a big breakfast for Paul - the kids were sure to help - and then we headed out on an adventure to the Cave of the Mounds near Madison, WI. I had seen an ad for it in Chicago Parenting Magazine and knew it would be a good day trip for us. The kids were excited, but slightly nervous that we would find bears in the cave! The day was beautiful and it was about 2 hours away, so when we got there, the kids were anxious to get out and play around on the beautiful grounds by the cave!

Juliette enjoyed walking on the "balance beam"!

I had packed a picnic lunch for us...

The picnic was a great way to start our adventure!

While we waited for our tour to start, we ventured over to the kids area where they could dig for treasures (that you could then buy).  The kids had a lot of fun in this area because it was basically a huge sand box with treasures hidden in the sand!

Good job Abbey!

Daddy enjoyed it too :)

But then it was time for our tour of the cave!  The girls were a little nervous at first, but then they got into it.  It was really amazing!

The kids are doing their best bear impressions...

I love Juju's bear in this picture with Daddy...

Awww, how sweet!

The cave had a lot of stalagmites and stalactites.  It was just amazing to see all the cave formations. And we learned that when a stalagmite and stalactite grow together it forms a tower.  This one is almost forming a tower...

And there were a lot of cave drippings, which they called cave kisses, and Ben is trying to get one in this picture.

Yay Daddy!

I thought this was a cool tunnel with water flowing down it.

After the tour was over, it was back to the kids area for more digging.

 

We didn't buy any of the treasures that the kids found, but they did have geodes you could buy that they would then split open to find a pretty treasure.  So we got one for the kids to share.  Here is the woman using the machine to split it open.  The kids were very enthralled.

Amazingly, it split into 3 pieces!!!  So everyone got a piece and then we went to wash it in the mining area.