Timpanogos Caves

Today on a whim we decided to go to the Timpanogos Caves near American Fork, UT. We hopped in the van (well, you never actually "hop" anywhere with several children, but you know) and 35 min. later we were in a National Park! How weird is that? On arrival we were singing Peter's praises for making us all wear jackets because it ended up pouring rain. Then as we proceeded to make the 1 1/2 mile hike gaining 1000 ft. elevation and the sun came out we were all cursing him (j/k Peter--we love you). Everyone survived it fine and we all had a pretty good time. John was of course dragging up the hill and I carried him a bit. Then when we were in the middle of the tour through the caves he started wailing that he had to pee NOW. The rangers are constantly reminding you not to even touch the cave walls for fear of the oils on your hands and so I thought urine was probably pretty much out of the question. I whipped out an empty bottle of water and tried to sweet-talk him into peeing in that but he wasn't going for it. I don't know why, he pees everywhere else (the tub, on the dog, on the wall, down the hose in the backyard...) Peter ended up carrying him back down the mountain (can we say shinsplints?) We went out to Applebees afterward for dinner where Peter and I were good and had salads while the kids ate burgers. The caves were really cool--check them out if you ever get the chance!