An amazing hike

Today my brother Cody and his family invited us to hike the caves in American Fork Canyon. I had no idea what we were in for. We got there early in the day (for us, anyway) and it was packed! We had to wait about 3 hours before we could start on the hike... so some advice for anyone wanting to go there... get tickets in advance for the time you want. When we came back, we started up the steep trail.

This is still pretty early on in the hike, but wow the view was awesome!

We are not used to this sort of thing, so we were so glad for all the bench stops along the way.

 Ken did the best out of all of us, and alternated carrying the bag and the kids.

Still not up to the caves, we were pretty hammered. Daisy was especially exhausted early on.

We kept trucking along uphill with our tired crew.

What were we thinking bringing along these 5 little kids?
About the last 1/4 part of the hike, it started raining! We had to get in those caves as fast as we could and my legs and arms were just shaking, trying to carry Daisy up the steepest part in the rain. But, we finally made it in.

We were geniuses and DIDN'T bring jackets. Poor kids were soaked and freezing inside the caves (its about 45 degrees in there).

I don't know what the kids thought about it, but Ken and I thought the caves were very cool!

There were lots of tight spaces and stalagmite obstacles to weave through. In one spot, the tour guide lady turned off the lights to utter darkness, it was amazing.

When we finally got out, Daisy kept saying "I tan't believe it!" And it was really great that the rain stopped for us.

Can you spot our little friend?

Awesome view, huh? The walk downhill was much better and faster, but still plenty tiring for us all.

In case you were wondering how Daisy felt about the whole adventure. She was so done hours ago!

Ahhhh... home to that beautiful sunset! We needed a bath and dinner like nothin' else. I have a feeling we'll all sleep GOOD tonight!