Family Time!!

(Psst - thanks to My Life and Kids and Kellys' Breakroom for featuring one of my posts on Finding the Funny!  My post was #3 - Check it out!)

This weekend we did something a little different. 

See, I've been having these premonitions of our life in 5 years - you know, when the girls are so busy with their friends, activities and (gulp) boys that they want nothing to do with us?

Yes, those kind of premonitions.  

The ones that make me yearn for an alcoholic beverage to take the edge off the anxiety attack that's headed my way.

So anyway, Brian and I made a decision at the beginning of summer to take at least one full day every month and spend it with the girls, doing something we've not done before so we can spend as much time together as possible. 

One day doesn't sound like much until you add in cheerleading practice 4 nights a week (which starts in a few weeks), games every Saturday from August through October, competition in November, then throw in dance classes three evenings a week, rehearsals, recitals, tumbling classes, birthday parties, family parties, school commitments, holidays...

Add all that into the equation and yeah - one day a month is a blessing. 

Moving on....

We live in a kick ass area of the country.  Truly.  We are within two hours of the ocean, mountains, lakes and some major historical sites so we decided to explore our own back yard! 

Our first stop:

Crystal Grottoes

Boonsboro, Maryland.

This is like the famed Luray Caverns, but on a MUCH smaller and more intimate level.

Picture from the website - no cameras are allowed

And by intimate, I mean squeezing through gaps, ducking your head and trying not to hyperventilate as the claustrophobic in you wonders if you will be stuck in the dark, dank, cold cavern forever if an earthquake were to hit...right...NOW and - wait - are the walls actually getting closer together????

I was actually OK - until our guide  began telling us some of the rules of cave exploration:, namely - bring three sources of light - a flashlight, a headlamp, and matches.

I casually noticed that, in addition to the electric lights placed throughout the caverns, he only had a hand flashlight with him.  

I don't think he was very happy with me patting him down to check for matches. 

Then he decided to show us how completely pitch black it really is underground when the lights are off. 

In case you're wondering, it looks like this:

Luckily the little 6 year old girl on the tour with us cried REALLY loud so no one noticed when I passed out from fright. 

I'm kidding.

(Sort of.... )

In reality it was very interesting - beautiful even - and the girls loved it. 

Of course, by the time we got out of there it was only 1:00 pm on a gorgeous Saturday in June.

So we went exploring....

Stay tuned!!