Bear Lake Day 4 - Minnetoka and Pickleville

Tuesday, we spent the morning hanging around the hotel and then headed to Minnetoka Cave. We were pretty bummed when we got there around noon only to find they were selling tickets for the 2:30 tour. Since we had 2 1/2 hours to kill, we decided to head back to the condo for lunch and then come back. It was a lot of driving and we were a little late for our tour, which made things a little crazy, but the cave was fun.

While we were waiting in line for tickets, Logan came over to show me what he caught - This butterfly! He just snagged it with his fingers. The poor butterfly! Logan thought that was pretty cool, though.

Rylee and Grandpa hanging out waiting for tickets

Logan and Rylee ready to go into the cave

The cave sign said 444 stairs on the tour. Well...that is just into the cave! If you want to come back OUT again, that means 888 stairs! Maybe not the best idea when you are 7 months pregnant! It was a little rough, but thank goodness I had helpers to carry the kids, since they both wanted to be carried a good amount of the time! Here is Logan and Grandpa starting into the cave.

Cute Rylee and Uncle Jeff - I love that smile! She went from person to person and I think everyone had a turn carrying her in the cave.

The inside of the cave - It was pretty neat. Logan and my little brother Kyle were especially into it.

Me and the kiddos - Right after I took this, Rylee decided she was walking "by herself" and fell in the mud and COVERED herself in it, in brand new pants, of course! That girl finds messes everywhere!!!

Logan checking out the cave

The fam in the wedding room of the cave. They turned out the lights completely after we took this and it was SO dark!

Me, Rylee and Logan

This was the one formation in the cave that they were allowed to touch, so the kids thought that was pretty cool and were anxious to touch it, since they had wanted to touch everything the whole way anyway.

We made it! Here we are outside the cave at the end of the tour. We made it up and down 888 stairs (some of them pretty treacherous!) and lived to tell about it!

Rylee and her Grandpa

There were chipmunks everywhere around the walkways by the entrance to the cave. I think the kids had more fun watching them and chasing them than anything else. They thought they were hilarious!

Rylee watching the chipmunks - She wanted to catch one really bad.

Logan and Uncle Brad

Me and the kids before we headed home.

We had to hurry back to the condo, get cleaned up and head to our dinner at the Pickleville Playhouse. Darren was able to make it back and also Heather and Jay, so we were ALMOST all there....just missing Dean. The dinner was a cowboy dutch oven style dinner and was pretty good. I don't think I would pay that much for it again, but it was fun to go to once.

Enjoying our dinner!

There was awhile between dinner and the play, so we just hung out for awhile. Here is Logan and Daddy chilling.

Rylee and Logan both loved this funny tire horse. It kept them busy for awhile.

The play we saw was "The Hanging of Juanito Bandito". It was HILARIOUS! I was laughing so hard the entire time! I was a little nervous about how my kids would do, but they loved it, too and Logan even laughed out loud for most of the show. My friend had gone a couple weeks before and told me how good it was, so I was worried it wouldn't live up to my expectations, but it totally did and we had a great time! Even Darren enjoyed it and he isn't much for plays. My brothers, who are usually much "too cool" for this stuff quoted lines from the play for the rest of the week and Logan talked about it OVER and OVER again! Even Rylee still says funny things about "Nito Bandito" It was great!

Our picture after the play with Juanito Bandito! The kids always think it is so fun to meet the stars of the show after!

Logan and the Sheriff

Overall, it was such a fun day and we were so happy to have our daddy back with us for the rest of the week! The cave and play were a really fun and different thing to do than what we did for the rest of the week and we all had fun together.