Monday, September 6, 2010

Geocaching!!!

We finally did it - we went geocaching - and I checked off another thing on my "want to do this summer" list. It was super fun!!! My brother Michael came with us - thanks so much for all your expertise and help. I was amazed at how many geocaches there are so close to us - our very first find was one called "Kiddie Highway" - we walk this road every Sunday to get to church. Here is the find.
Next we went over to the University where there was one hidden by "Old Sorrel". The boys found it really quick (it was in the same place as the first one).

We then decided that we could graduate from the level 1 difficulty hides. So our next cache was in this old field with a tractor - we knew that the cache was hidden in the tractor since the cordinates were right there, but we still searched for 15-20 minutes before finding it. Here is Michael taking the tractor apart to find the cache - we didn't know it at the time, but he is actually holding the part were the cache is hidden (it came even more apart).

Michael let each of the kids take turns leading us to the "treasure". Here is Abby holding the GPS (the boys could actually get us to the coordinates, Abby was just holding it so she didn't feel left out). Abby is going to be quite upset with me someday when she sees the outfits that I let her wear in public. In my defense - she is incredibly stubborn - so I usually give into her when it comes to clothes. Her dad was here this weekend and bought her this "princess" dress which she has worn almost non-stop since (it is Sleeping Beauty, not Snow White - Courtnie). I thought I was pretty lucky to get her out of it to put a church dress on yesterday - so I didn't put up too much of a fight today (notice her hair as well - Abby can already do her hair herself - yes she is wearing both a headband and one of the twins hair bows and neither of them match the outfit).
After the tractor find we suffered some trauma (Abby tried to pet a cactus) and had to stop to pick out the cacti spines and drop two tired babies off at Grandma's for a nap. We then made it on to the most clever find of the day - there was a fake sprinkler in a huge field that opened to reveal the cache. The GPS worked great - it literally put us right on top of the spot. (The pictures at this geocache didn't turn out - Sorry). Then we had two in a row where we couldn't find the cache - kindof dissapointing, but we will go back and find them (I read some hints about them after we got home and I think I know where they will be after that). Our last find today was tons of fun! The coordinates put us right in the middle of the busy street in front of Walmart. We were stumped for quite a while until we saw that there was a grate right over where we were supposed to find the cache. Following similar grates, we found a tunnel that led right under the street - I grew up here, how did I not know about this tunnel?

Michael helped Abby "find" this cache. Can you see how she is holding her right hand? That is the had that "pet" the cactus - I couldn't see anything else in her hand but she insisted that it still hurt. In fact, it hurt so bad she couldn't even walk. Don't worry, she is now all better - in fact, it is quite amazing what a little sugar can do - not too many injuries that a piece of licorice can't heal.

I have to give a big THANK YOU to my Uncle Rick - he not only loaned us his GPS, but he even copied the entire manual for me (and I did read most of it - even though Derek laughed at me). Now I need to add a GPS to my birthday wish list, so you can get yours back!

6 comments:

Christelle said...

This looks fun. Tyler's been geocashing with his brothers. I wasn't interested but you make it sound fun, maybe the kids and I should give it a try.

Riley and Brittney said...

You do so many fun things with your kids. Can I come be your kid? ha ha

Unknown said...

I'm so glad it worked out for you. I need to find my GPS so we can go again. And I let Addison wear very similar clothes all the time. It's not worth the fight and Abby looks darling in her princess dress.

ibshell said...

I'm impressed. I don't even know the first thing about geocaching. Maybe some day I'll figure it out. It always sounds fun!

ibshell said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sharon McKee said...

I am officially blog stalking you now. How fun to read about your family! I am going to do geocaching sometime, it sounds like so much fun. Seriously, you are such an AMAZING mom.