I woke up this morning and no longer have a child single digits! Today, Leo turned 10!

10 sounds so much bigger than 9.

10 is 2 whole hands.

10 means he’s not a little boy anymore 😩😢😩

Enough of that – on to the celebrating!

🎉Woo-hoo! 10 🎉

We always want better for our kids – I spent my 10th birthday at the Rockingham Skating Rink, Leo spent his birthday 300 feet underground in the caves of Tennessee.

We said goodbye to Pigeon Forge and headed to Chattanooga. We managed to avoid most of the severe weather. Some spots of heavy rain but not anything bad for very long. It was a beautiful drive – here is our view crossing the Tennessee River…

Mike really enjoyed me rolling down the windows for photos (He’s smiling on the inside)

We arrived at Raccoon Mountain Caverns in our required clothing – long pants, long sleeve shirts, and old sneakers – ready to get “caving”

We had a few snacks and explored a bit before we “geared up”

Once we got our gear, I left my phone in the car because our guide warned that getting completely muddy was a distinct possibility. So, all my cave photos are thanks to two cavers in my group. I’m still waiting on some pictures, and I’m hoping those pictures will truly show the caves. You really cannot grasp how small some of these spaces were and how far down we were 😳🥴

Anyway… off we went! Our guide, Jasmine, first came to the caves with an overnight trip when she was 12 and after that, she decided to become a geologist. She’s now in college studying geology, and a caver. She was fantastic – teaching us about the caves and mixing in a little science. She was also part spider-monkey because she would crawl around those caves like Spider-Man!!!

Who else had people sing happy birthday to them in a cave?

Michael thoroughly enjoyed his cave time 😊

There’s Mike in grey shirt 😳

Stalactites hanging from ceiling (c for ceiling and they are hanging on tight… different from stalagmites on the ground – they might trip you 👍🏻)

Baby salamanders were everywhere.

Fossils were all along the cave walls.

It was really amazing in the caves. They have been kept natural with the only lights being the ones attached to our helmets.

Sometimes the ceiling was 75 feet above you, and at other times you crawled on your belly and still scraped the ceiling. We slid down mud slides, and jumped into pools of water… and oh the mud!!!

It was a physically and mentally challenging day, but I am so glad we did it! (We’ll add more pictures when we get them) 

Thankfully we remembered grocery bags for our shoes and clothes, and changed at the bath house nearby. Honestly, I was afraid if we showed up at the hotel looking like this, they would somehow lose our reservation 🤪

After we were semi-cleaned up, we made our way to the hotel in Chattanooga. When I booked the room, I mentioned that we were celebrating a birthday. Once we got to our room, we had a sweet surprise from the Holiday Inn staff:

*let me just add a plug for the Holiday Inn Rewards Club – they really make you feel special to be a member. I didn’t have a cake or candle and these guys just went above and beyond. The birthday boy was thrilled 😍

But still the mud! Ooh my word, the mud was everywhere still!!! Even after showering at the hotel with soap and washcloth, there was still mud coming off on the towel 🥴🤪🥴

We were starving by dinner because we skipped lunch. Raccoon Caverns recommended not eating a big meal before going in the caves since no bathrooms and it’s a 3-hour tour… so we were HUNGRY!

The birthday boy had picked ribs for his birthday dinner so we checked with Kyle the Valet for a great local rib place. Kyle the Valet said “you gotta go to Mike’s Smokehouse.” So off we went to Mike’s Smokehouse.

Now Mike’s may not look like much on the outside but dang, can he cook!!! The ribs were fantastic – the bbq tacos were delish and the beef brisket you could cut with your fork!

And we had a cupcake to sing happy birthday to the newest Brown in the double-digit club 🎶🧁🎶🧁

The boys shared the cupcake and we decided to go see just how good Cupcake Kitchen was. No disappointment here – It tasted as good as it lookedEveryone but mom picked two – one for today and one for tomorrow. The looked almost too lovely to eat…Almost too good to eat …

Back to the hotel for some swimming (and some icy hot), and then we can call it a day!

This was truly one of the coolest things I’ve done with my boys – Definitely a day to remember ♥️ (thank you to my friends who prayed for my mama-love to be stronger than my claustrophobia 😘)

*sidenote: the other boy is truly loving his spring break too 🤣😂🤣 He may never want to come home

Tomorrow we are exploring Chattanooga some and then headed to music city – Nashville🎶