Shooting and Indoor Caves

Today was the Superbowl!  Congrats to Green Bay for their exciting victory!  You know what my favorite part of Superbowl Sunday is?  Blowing off the game and doing something that's actually fun.  Like shooting stuff.  Okay, I just re-read that, and it sounds pretty messed up.  But the Superbowl is just so long.  My eyes start to glaze over staring at a television for that length of time.  So today we opted to go shooting in the mountains with Shan and Jeremy instead.  I finally was able to try out my new shotgun, and it was so fun!  It is light, comfortable, and easy to aim. 

I also shot Jeremy's M14 rifle (very top picture), which can be pretty thrilling because the scope allows you to hit nearly 100% of your targets.  It makes you feel like you have this amazing skill for precision-aim, when really you don't.  It's just the rifle making you look good.

After target practice, we went to the Stockade for a late lunch/early dinner.  They had the Superbowl going in the restaurant, so we were able to catch glimpses of it, although I was more interested in scarfing down my hot pastrami sandwich and chatting with my sis.  We later returned to Shan's house, where I learned something incredible.  They have a cave in their house!  And no, I am not being metaphorical.  They actually have a friggen' cave in their house.  I'm sure this is just a typical part of mountain homes; some sort of access area within the house, but coming from an area of bland, plain ranch-style homes, I was pretty awed by it.  In the mini-kitchen they recently cleared out, there is a small cabinet-type door at about chest-level.  Trinity kept pointing at this door and asking me, "Hey Mom, you wanna see the cave?"  After dismissively waving her off a few times, thinking it was just her being overly-imaginative about an everyday storage cabinet, I finally said, "Yeah, sure hon."  When she opened the door, there it was:  a cave!  With rocky mountain walls and everything.  The entrance is about the size of a large doggy door, but theoretically a full-size adult can wiggle their way into the cavern, at which point they can stand at full height and walk around.  The kids had a great time playing in it, until the men started yelling for them to get out  (you know, spider webs, dark creepy corners, etc.).  At one point, after examining the cavern from the outside with a flashlight, I collapsed on the bean bag and whined, "My house is so boring."  And of course Trin and Elijah have begun the tirade:  "How come I can't have a cave in MY room?  I want a cave too!"  Hey, I thought the fact that they had TVs in their rooms, a DVD player, a turtle, two rats, a walk-in closet, and their own bathroom was pretty cool.  But no; they want a cave.