Monday, March 16, 2009, we headed to The Natural Bridge Caverns & Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, which are located right next to each other in New Braunfels, Texas. The caverns (cave) was very interesting. The kids love caves, rocks, nature in general, so this was right up their ally. I had read in the brochure that the cave was 70 degrees year round and Les thought I was completely crazy. But the guide proved that I was right and didn't misunderstand what I read. It is due to the fact that the ground temperature stays at what the average temperature of Texas is year round, plus it was like 88% humidity, so it actually felt even warmer than the 70 degrees. The cave was really neat, because of the rain they had experienced over the weekend, the rain waters were trickling down into the cave so it gave an actual visual of how the formations were actually formed. This cavern had very steep inclines and we definitely had to hold onto the guardrails they had especially with the floors being wet with the rain water as well as the humidity. but it was definitely the most beautiful cave I have been in.
After we came out of the cavern, we headed over for a little outdoor adventure. The girls delighted theirselves in climbing the 30-foot rock wall, followed by all 5 of us zip lining!!
Here are pictures of the girls climbing the wall. Their dear ole daddy didn't think they could make it to the top. (I knew they could do it!) They proved him wrong and shimmied their little selves right to the top and rang the bell! Then they repelled themselves back down...I think that was a little more challenging for them because they were so light on the cords they really had to push themselves off of the wall with their feet for it to release them down. But they managed just fine. I was so proud of them! My strong little farm girls!!
Then it was off to the Zip Line! Yes even our 4-year-old little man made the flying adventure! He was SO EXCITED and it was so fun to watch him flying through the air...of course he was doing all his "man yells" all the way across...Oh yeah! Anyone that knows Griffin you can just imagine what he sounded like. As you can see he's all about how big and strong his muscles are! He and Les zipped at the same time and when he got done he told Les, "I want to do it again!"
Then it was my little girlies turn next! Megan is a little uneasy about heights and I could see her tensing up a little and unsure what to do...so when the guy said "GO"...she let her little sister go first to see how she did it and then she right away followed her! I was the last to go and the first step is quite a doozy! ha ha...but it was a lot of fun, I of course was holding my camera and attempted to take a picture but it didn't turn out quite so good with the spinning. Glad the cables didn't break because those cactus down below wouldn't have felt too good!
After getting all our gear off we let the kids do some gem mining. I had forgot the girls had done this before with Grandma Graber, so they were pros at it. Griffin was again excited to be playing in dirt and water....every little boys dream. Megan found arrow heads in her dirt and Natalie and Griffin found several little stones and gems. When Megan sifted through all her dirt she went to the bottom of the trough and sifted through sand/dirt that had gathered down there to see if anyone had left behind any treasures...she's so funny! She did find a couple little gems. I think they could have stayed there all day doing that.
After collecting all their precious gems and stones we headed to the adjacent property where the Wildlife Ranch was. This was like a drive-thru safari. They gave you a bag of animal food and we got to feed the animals right out the windows of the vehicle! We all really enjoyed this too! It was like eye spy in the wilderness as some of the animals were hiding in the trees. We saw all kinds of animals we have never seen before. Some of the animals are used to the vehicles coming thru and will come right up to the vehicles to get their food. We had a long horn steer that was so close to our vehicle, Natalie had to duck her head back in the window as his "long horn" about came inside. It was pretty funny. This was another fun filled day and was the actual first warm day, it was finally starting to feel like Texas, or what I thought Texas should feel like 80 degrees! That was enough for a Monday...so we headed back to Canyon Lake to get ready for day 5......stay tuned.
After we came out of the cavern, we headed over for a little outdoor adventure. The girls delighted theirselves in climbing the 30-foot rock wall, followed by all 5 of us zip lining!!
Here are pictures of the girls climbing the wall. Their dear ole daddy didn't think they could make it to the top. (I knew they could do it!) They proved him wrong and shimmied their little selves right to the top and rang the bell! Then they repelled themselves back down...I think that was a little more challenging for them because they were so light on the cords they really had to push themselves off of the wall with their feet for it to release them down. But they managed just fine. I was so proud of them! My strong little farm girls!!
Then it was off to the Zip Line! Yes even our 4-year-old little man made the flying adventure! He was SO EXCITED and it was so fun to watch him flying through the air...of course he was doing all his "man yells" all the way across...Oh yeah! Anyone that knows Griffin you can just imagine what he sounded like. As you can see he's all about how big and strong his muscles are! He and Les zipped at the same time and when he got done he told Les, "I want to do it again!"
Then it was my little girlies turn next! Megan is a little uneasy about heights and I could see her tensing up a little and unsure what to do...so when the guy said "GO"...she let her little sister go first to see how she did it and then she right away followed her! I was the last to go and the first step is quite a doozy! ha ha...but it was a lot of fun, I of course was holding my camera and attempted to take a picture but it didn't turn out quite so good with the spinning. Glad the cables didn't break because those cactus down below wouldn't have felt too good!
After getting all our gear off we let the kids do some gem mining. I had forgot the girls had done this before with Grandma Graber, so they were pros at it. Griffin was again excited to be playing in dirt and water....every little boys dream. Megan found arrow heads in her dirt and Natalie and Griffin found several little stones and gems. When Megan sifted through all her dirt she went to the bottom of the trough and sifted through sand/dirt that had gathered down there to see if anyone had left behind any treasures...she's so funny! She did find a couple little gems. I think they could have stayed there all day doing that.
After collecting all their precious gems and stones we headed to the adjacent property where the Wildlife Ranch was. This was like a drive-thru safari. They gave you a bag of animal food and we got to feed the animals right out the windows of the vehicle! We all really enjoyed this too! It was like eye spy in the wilderness as some of the animals were hiding in the trees. We saw all kinds of animals we have never seen before. Some of the animals are used to the vehicles coming thru and will come right up to the vehicles to get their food. We had a long horn steer that was so close to our vehicle, Natalie had to duck her head back in the window as his "long horn" about came inside. It was pretty funny. This was another fun filled day and was the actual first warm day, it was finally starting to feel like Texas, or what I thought Texas should feel like 80 degrees! That was enough for a Monday...so we headed back to Canyon Lake to get ready for day 5......stay tuned.
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