A Hand Plus a Finger

Can you believe that our little boy turned 6 years old yesterday?

He is a hand plus a finger....... in kid terms.

I can hardly believe that Roger and I have been parents for 6 whole years because we STILL haven't figured out how to do the whole parent thing.

We just do our best and pray that it works in the long run.

Paul Calvin has many obsessions....

The Beatles

The Monkeys

Storm Chasers

Strange Creatures

God

And CAVES.

Yesterday morning after declaring HAPPY BIRTHDAY to him Paul McCartney style...

(I told him Paul sent him a message then played this for him. His eyes got MASSIVE)

 .........I announced our plans to venture into Mammoth Cave after dinner.

In true Paul fashion he quickly ran to his room to prepare for his first caving adventure.

Shortly after, he appeared before me wearing ONLY his underwear and a camping back pack.

"Mom, I'm ready to go caving. I've got my back pack, my magnifying glass just in case we see a small creature, my rock climbing clip because you never know, my flash light since it will be dark and my sleeping bag just in case."

I tried VERY hard to keep from laughing as I said, 

"well, buddy boy, are you missing something?"

He looked down.

"Oh yeah. I guess cavers need pants since they have to sometimes crawl around"

I added, 

"and  possibly a shirt?"

When we pulled into the parking lot of the National Park Paul said in such a awe struck voice,

"I can't believe I am here. we are really going to go into a REAL cave!"

We had dinner at the park hotel before heading into the cave.

Roger cracked the whole place up by announcing, 

"WOW it is like a Cleaver Family vacation in here," 

as we walked in the door.

It was REALLY old school wood paneling, and old chairs.

That place is in DESPERATE need of a face lift.

It was HILARIOUS.

Once we started heading down into the cave, feeling the cool breeze on our faces, listening to sound of water dropping around us, Paul could NOT contain his excitement. You could see it ALL OVER his face. With every step down his smile got bigger and bigger until he screamed out,

"Mom, I can't believe I am actually INSIDE the earth."

We chose the Mammoth Passage tour that was only 1 1/2 hours long because we took little Anna with us and weren't quite sure how she would handle the wet darkness of the cave.

She ended up LOVING it!

However, we did have to take turns carrying her.

But it really wasn't that bad.

In fact, I was quite surprised by how carrying around over 30 pounds through a dark cave didn't faze me much.  I am so happy when it comes to caves so there's not much that can annoy me when I'm exploring!

On the way to Mammoth Cave I was SHOCKED when my husband looked over to me with excited eyes similar to Paul's and declared that he had 

"never been to a cave before in his life."

I smiled REALLY big and said with a smirk 

"well, well, Mr Jasper. There are things that I am getting to introduce YOU too! I've taken you to eagle falls, yahoo falls and now Mammoth Cave. It seems as if I am helping to make you a more rounded individual as well!" 

He just rolled his eyes at me in a playful way.

It was so wonderful to be able to spend Paul's birthday exploring the caves!

At the beginning of the summer Paul asked if we could "learn about something together."

Together we have learned about 

storm chasers 

mummies

cavers

caves 

and bats.

Paul and I have spent all summer reading books and watching National Geographic shows about all of those interesting things listed.

That has been our Mommy/Paul time!

The above picture is of us in front of a cage that they close to protect the bats from humans.

This cage allows the bats to go in and out of the caves while keeping the humans out!

We were both jumping up and down with excitement when we saw it so we had to take a picture in front of it TOGETHER!

Paul with a sign about all the different species of Bat that can be found in the caves.

Before heading back home we took a small drive through the National Park.

Look what we found on our drive!

I noticed this deer off in the woods, stopped the car to show the kids and the sweet little thing walked all the way up to our car.  Roger tried to offer the little one a peace offering.

I threw out an old peanut butter and jelly sandwich (yep all moms have an old PB&J in the car somewhere right?) and it ate it.

We had a wonderful afternoon celebrating the birth of our first born son, Paul Calvin!

Our big six year old kindergartener!

Ps: make sure Roger doesn't put me to rest in THIS cemetery because for the record I DO have a LOT of HOPE