So, while we're waiting for me to die in front of the TV while Jillian Michaels screams at me to do more, not stop and feel weakness leaving my body, I thought I'd do a little catching up.
A couple of weeks ago, the small ones and I were hanging around the house. Ethan was bored and Claire and Grayson were practicing their new love/hate relationship. More on that at a later date, because it's really driving me nuts.
Anyways, I have a friend who is very into Geocaching. She and her son go hiking in the mountains near her Nevada home and find them. They make day out of it, and have a good time. She's been telling me about it for awhile, and seeing the so bored look on Ethan's face and hearing the screaming between Claire and Grayson, I decided to look it up.
Now, you might be thinking, "What is Geocaching, Chantel?" Well, I'll tell you! Geocaching is like a worldwide treasure hunt. People take small boxes or other things and fill them with small items, like charms, small toys, coins, etc...As well as a small notepad to log who has found it when what date they found it on, then, they hide it. They post the coordinates to the location of it online, so other people can look up the coordinates on GPS and find it. The only rule is, if you take something from the Geocache, you replace it with something else.
I went to the official Geocaching website and signed up, then I searched for caches hidden in our area, and was lucky enough to find 3. I separated Claire and Grayson before the real wrestling match began and told Ethan to get some shoes. Two sippy cups and two bottles of water later, we were in the car to explore and hunt.
The first one was to be located at a place we drive by quite a bit. It's across the street from Ethan's school at the VFW. What's special about it is, it was in a tank. Yes, a real tank. The VFW in town has a tank parked in from with a memorial plaque on the front. We stopped and I loaded Grayson up in the stroller while Claire and Ethan ran over to Oooo and Ahhh in wonder. Then, we searched. It took a few circles around the tank before we found it. Ethan was so excited to open it.
After posing for a picture with his "treasure" as he called it, we sat on the ground and looked at all the things other's had left behind. There was a small bottle of bubbles, which caught Claire's attention immediately. Ethan opted not to take anything. I think he was afraid it was considered stealing, even though I explained the process of trading. Once he was done, we signed the log and replaced it. Then Ethan posed for a picture.
Next we headed to the local cemetery. I know, odd place. It also happens to be a memorial for men and women from Clear Lake that died in war. We got out and began our walk to look for the Geocache that was supposed to be hidden here. Unfortunately, it was no longer available. Apparently, it was the victim of the lawn mower when it fell from it's perch in a tree. Ethan opted instead to look around at all the old graves from the 1800's. While wondering around, we found the grave of Gaylord A. Nelson, founder of Earth Day. He was born and raised here in Clear Lake. There's historical signs in front of his house and also on the school.
Ethan was very interested in this and asked about a million questions. I told him to check out the large display at school that has pictures of Gaylord Nelson as well as copies of the book written about him. He wasn't to interested in that, because it involved reading and learning. Apparently this wasn't the day for that.
We headed home after that because it was getting late and I had to make dinner. After dinner, David stayed home after I put Claire and Grayson to bed so I could take Ethan and a friend to the park to look for a Geocache that was supposed to be hidden there. Unfortunately, we didn't find it. But, I did get to see the sunset.
It was a fun day. We'll be doing it again, and I really suggest it on a day when you think you have nothing to do!
1 comment:
That sounds like fun, especially for older children! I might take a look at that website and see if anything like that exists here in Oz...
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