Me 'n my boys!

Monday Morning we got up and drove to Oregon to go through the Oregon Caves. I had looked up on the Oregon Caves website the hours of operation and directions, and noticed there was a height requirement of 42 inches, so I figure I’d better measure my littlest before going, so I went to the local Rite Aid store and bought a cheap tape measure… Well, Rocky came in at about an inch and a half too short! So we had a problem. I had already told the boys we were going to go see a cave, and they were SO SO SO excited. Now there might be a chance we couldn’t go… Grandpa and I talked about options… we could pick up some cowboy boots, tape cardboard to the bottom of his shoes, we thought and thought. Then I remembered I’d brought “Connor’s” heelys, which not only had thick soles, but also had a wheel on the back that lifted another half inch. So we took the shoes, and grandpa thought adding another quarter inch of tape to the bottom of that (as well as stuffing a sixteenth inch of paper inside the shoe to raise him up further) might just get us there…

Well, the guy at the counter said it was too close, and he'd have to call for the ranger - and they were the final decision. Rocky bairly made it! I mean by a hair! but there was still a hold up - there was a second test that needed to be completed as well. A stair climbing test. And who's not going to notice the bottom of shoes like like that while Rocky's climbing up the stairs at nearly eye level? We knew about the test and had a plan... Right after the height and the ranger says "Well, we have a stair climbing test too, but don't worry, if he doesn't make it you can still go in the first room of the cave, he just cant come on the tour". Right after she said that, we asked if the boys could hit the restroom first, and we did a quick shoe change... off with the heelys and on with the tennis.

But the stair test was tougher than expected... not only did he have to climb up and down a flight of stairs 4 times, but he had to hold on to both rails during the entire test - and the rails were so far apart that he could barely reach both at the same time. But in the end he just made it... and she said he's good to go. Forever we'll remember that "we got Rocky into the cave!" :)

For fun, after the tour I took him back and snuck a picture of Rocky with his regular shoes... You can see how short he ended up being under normal circumstances...