Trauma and Redemption

We made the very poor choice of taking my mom to Colossal cave with our good pals the Hays. Or rather, the Hays said they were going and we tagged along per usual. The cave was super cool, buuuuuuuut there were tons of drop offs and chasms and my mom has extreme anxiety attacks when she is around heights like that, especially when there are kids around. We hadn't been before and should have researched it more before coming with her.

By the mouth of the cave

 Elliot was having a rough day for some reason, and had a complete meltdown in the cave because I wasn't letting him walk around. He was squirming all over the place trying to jump out of my arms and into various death chasms, which was terrifying my mom, and then he started screaming and no one could hear the tour guide over him. I surrendered and took him back out not too far into the tour. 

Mom, Aaron, and the Hays persevered and learned many cave facts.

 Elliot and I hung out enjoying the gorgeous scenery and cool water sluice thing. 

Much splashing was had

Two cave survivors

 We had to redeem ourselves from choosing such horrible morning activities, so after Elliot's nap we headed over to Tucson Tamale for dinner. We hadn't been before, and we loved it!

Eating all the tamales

Seriously. All of them. 

Elliot approved of the venue

Elliot liked making faces at the friendly kitchen staff

 After dinner, we went to the nearby Reid Park. We were just going to play on the playground, but then we realized that there was a giant duck pond! It was gorgeous, and Elliot loved the ducks.

He was quite upset that he couldn't get into the water with the ducks

Duck friends

 In the end, Mom claims she forgives us from subjecting her to cave trauma. She already has tickets to come back and see us in September after dropping Breezy off at BYU-I, so I guess I believe her.