Natural Bridge Caverns

What a day! At about ten-thirty we drove to Natural Bridge Caverns, a FANTASTIC underground monument to God's glory as seen in the beauty and intricacy of creation. The formations were absolutely awesome. The stalagmites, stalactites, draperies, etc. had combined and overflowed each other to make weird and beautiful formations with descriptive names such as "Bomb Burst", "Fried Eggs", "King's Throne", and "Fairy Castles". After the walk-through tour, we got to pan for gems, and Josiah found a baby emerald. The kids had a blast.
We had lunch in Van Go as we headed to Guadalupe State Park, where we were the only ones around. The river (most scenic in Texas, after Big Bend) was magnificent. We played all along the river bank, and the older kids all rolled up their pant legs and waded into the freezing water to climb the rocks in the middle of the river and fish. After a while, everyone's feet got numb and they waded out to play on the bank. The boys and Caitlin discovered a hollow tree with a "critter hole" in it and tried without success to locate the critter. Ana, Abby, and Buddy had a blast playing on the nearby playground, and Tori and Haley skipped stones and built rock artwork. It was great.
For dinner, we stopped by the hotel to change out of our wet clothes before heading to the Cracker Barrel for dinner.

And, in the saga of the digital cameras... all the cameras:
A) have dead batteries
B) are broken
C) both of the above

We did get some great pictures today, but as it's kind of hard to get pictures on the blog when the cameras all have no power, we'll have to wait till we stop at a Wal Mart tomorrow before we put more pictures on here!