Caves vs Beetle Larva

Over Labor Day weekend Joe and I thought it would be fun to take the kids up to the Paris Ice Caves in Idaho. We had been sick all week, and were still sick, but I really needed/wanted to get out of our germ infested house. Ari had never been in a real cave, nor had he really gotten to use his new headlamp for anything other than reading. I thought Ari would love it; like maybe today was the day he would outgrow his timidness and follow in the adventurous spirit of his mother. I was wrong.

He liked the big open part of the cave, the part with the boardwalk and lots of light; but Joe and I wanted to explore a small somewhat lesser known offshoot. I knew Ari would be apprehensive, he always is when trying something new, and it's dark, so you can't blame the kid. The pool of blood at the mouth of the small opening didn't help put Ari's mind at ease. Someone had literally cracked their head open a few minutes before we got there. I took this as a great opportunity to explain safety procedures, Ari took it as a bad omen. He wined almost the entire time we were in the cave (except for when a bat swooped by our heads, he liked that part); it was scaaaary, it was daaaaark, it was cooooold, it was weeeet, he wanted to go back to the vaaaan... We could hear visitors above us wondering what that small whimpering sound was coming from the cave. We tried our best to make the cave really cool, he wasn't having it, our patience started wearing out so we decided it was time to go. (side note: Isaac loved it).

After leaving the cave we drove down a dirt road until we found the perfect spot to have lunch under a tree near some cattle. Ari found a beetle larvae and laid on the pic-nic sheet for a long time watching it slowly make it's way across the ground. Question after question for his Dad about beetle larva. This was the highlight of the trip for him, he was far more content just sitting in the sun watching this fat little brown thing inch across the dirt than he had been the entire time we were at the caves.

He's his Dads child.