Fun in the Mud

Friday I went on an overnight activity with Haley and the youth from church to the Peppersauce Cave or the "Mud Caves" in Oracle. I'm not a leader but thought it would be fun to tag along so I invited myself. It was so much fun! I love camping and being outdoors especially when the weather is nice which it was. Friday night I learned how to make "flaming biscuits". This is done by wrapping a small Pillsbury biscuit around the end of a dowel and holding it over the fire until it's golden brown. The trick is not to burn it. I'm not sure why they call them "flaming" because you really don't want flames on your biscuit. Once it's done you pop it off, fill it with butter & honey and eat it. Yummy.





The girls really got into this and had lots of fun with it. It took me four trys to make the perfect "flaming biscuit"

Saturday morning we got up early and the girls did their camp cooking certification by making us breakfast burritos. Then we were off to the caves. I had this picture in my head of this big open cave that had some mud that we were going to squish around in for awhile. Boy was I wrong. Not what I expected at all. In fact it was a little scary. To start with I had to crawl through this opening that was barely big enough to fit through. I had to get down on my belly and inch my way through. It was a bit intimidating but once we got through it opened up into a huge cavern. It was completely dark so you had to have a flashlight to make your way around. We kind of split up into groups and went exploring. Lots of different tunnels and paths to go through, some scarier than others. The ground was slightly damp which made it real slippery in some spots and there were big drop offs where you couldn't see the bottom and narrow crevices you had to squeeze through. The farther in you got the wetter it got and that's when you really started to get dirty. I was really afraid of slipping and losing my footing so I did a lot of sliding on my bum and crawling on my hands and knees. Once you got to the back there was a small pool which some of the braver kids & leaders took a swim in. There was also one area that is called the "rabbit hole". It's a very small hole that you can climb down using a rope. Haley informed me before we even got there that I would not fit down this hole so not to even try it. I took her word for it and stayed clear. We spent a couple of hours in there before we called it quits. I can honestly say that I have never been dirtier in my life and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Proof that girls can get down and dirty just like the boys.

Look at those dirty bums!


Not my best picture but I need proof that I really did it.

Haley is such a sweetie. She was worried about me the whole time. She kept saying "mom, don't do it, don't go down there" or "mom, you're scaring me, stop". I had to tell her several times to chill out and stop worrying, I'm not that fragile. It makes me feel good that she's looking out for me. She told me when we got home that she was really happy that I came with her. Ahhhh! Isn't that awesome? I hope she always wants me around. She's a great girl.

I woke up the next morning and I was sore in some weird places. My legs were sore which made sense because I did a lot of squatting. But my shoulders and my triceps were sore and I didn't quite understand why, but I was relieved to find out that the other leaders were sore in odd places too. I guess you just don't realize all the muscles your using when your crawling around on the ground like some kind of animal.

I'm already making plans to go back and take my boys. This is the type of thing that is right up their alley.