Even MORE geocaching!

As the summer vacation from school was coming to a close, I realized we had hardly done any geocaching all summer! While Dan was at Burning Man, I took the kids to some local trails for a hike, and mid-way through the hike, we realized there were probably a lot of geocaches hidden nearby (and we were right!). We were on a pretty limited time-frame, but looked for two and found three!

The first one we were staring right at without realizing until I finally decided to read the hint. Gotta love hints!

The second one was located on a part of the trail we'd already passed through, so we decided to hit it up on our way back to the car (so just continued exploring the trails for awhile and THEN headed back towards the car and the 2nd nearby cache). Based on the description, we were were pretty sure we knew where it would be located, and sure enough, we found this cutesy painted birdhouse, complete with a log book and some swag items.


As we were walking away, I accidentally hit the "photos" option of the geocaching app, and it took me to several pictures of other people holding up a totally different cache, near something entirely different than where were standing. Upon further exploration, we found the REAL geocache (Jared didn't want to be in this picture)


We are still pondering what the heck the bird house one was all about, because there were NOT two caches listed on the app that close together--we're talking maybe 10ft apart. We figure it was a nice two-for-one surprise! ha!

This past weekend, Dan and the boys were building stuff together, so Emily and I took Charlie and hit up another set of trails to do some geocaching. The bulk of the caches were hidden on a stretch of the trail that was pretty rough going in some places! I was glad we didn't have Connor with us...

Of the 7 caches hidden on the trails, we found 4 of them. Not bad!

One of our successes!


A few nearby to another one of our successes. This was a VERY old (HUGE) tree which fell down a long time ago. It was very splintered and twisted, and covered in moss, etc. It was really neat to see in person. Wish the picture did it justice!


The first cache we didn't find had us heading away from the main trail system and out along the main road (either that or down the REALLY steep embankment). Either way, we decided we didn't want to bother with it! The next cache we didn't find was another one we basically decided to skip. Best we could tell, we either had to bushwack through some pretty thick foliage, or walk in the stream to get nearer to it, and we didn't want to do either.

Here's Em at the stream we opted not to walk in!


The last cache we couldn't find drove me NUTS because the coordinates kept being so jumpy (due to the dense tree cover overhead). It would show us being really close, and then would suddenly jump and show us being 200-400ft away. So then we'd start backtracking and it would do it again. After turning around and backtracking several times, and considering we'd already been walking through the trails for close to two hours (there were a LOT of trails to wind through!), we were pretty tired and decided to go ahead and pass on that one as well. I always hate ending on a failure, but we were POOPED!

Geocaching with Grandma!

The kids and I took my mom geocaching last week on her birthday. I'd purposely mapped out some caches near my favorite coffee stand so I could drive through and treat my mom and I to coffee.

The first cache we took her to was one we'd found previously, so I made the kids stay in the car so they wouldn't spoil it for her. (I always take new people to caches I've found before so they are guaranteed at least one successful experience.) After she found it, I let the kids out of the car to pose for a picture. Fun Fact: This cache was also the first one that Emily Grace found! (It was actually her suggestion to do this one first so she and Grandma would be matching)


We drove through for coffee and then made attempts at finding the two caches just down the street. We couldn't find the first of the two. The second one I had found before, but none of my kids had, so I figured it would be a fun one to watch my mom and the kids searching for it. When we arrived, I could tell right away it was not there. Very disappointing!

So far we were 1 for 3 and I was feeling bad that my mom's first geocaching experience wasn't all it could have been. Time-wise we were running short on time so we picked two more caches to try (one near-ish to where we were, and another very near home).

We tromped off-path for a bit to find the first one. The kids actually found some things they were interested in trading for (a lot of times the caches are just full of major junk). We drove to the last cache for the afternoon, and got to explore an old cemetary. The clue for the cache said we didn't need to enter the cemetary to find it, but after unsuccessfully searcing for the cache, we figured we might as well peek at all the grave stones. We found two that we're pretty sure are relatives of ours (through my dad's side). The kids enjoyed looking at the old dates on the graves and recognizing some last names of people we know (whether or not they're relatives of people we know is another story!).

We ended the afternoon 2 for 5, my most unsuccessful geocaching outing to date, but we enjoyed the warm sunny day, and the time spent together!

Geocaching with Jared

Jared and I had some time together a couple of weekends ago, so we headed to Dollar Tree, and bought a stash of stuff for our "bag of swag" for when we geocache. For a whopping $5, we have mini playdoughs, plastic soldiers, some sailboat erasers, little cars, and plastic bugs. Now when we find fun stuff in the caches, we can make trades!

We decided to see if there were any caches near the store, and one seemed like it would be a decently quick/easy find. We found a little jingle bell, and left a sailboat eraser. *grin*





Beautiful sunny day, time spent in a park we'd never been to, surrounded by really yummy smelling flowers, with a great view of the bridges. I'd say it was a GREAT morning out with my Jare-bear! And we were successful geocachers, yet again. Yay us!

geocaches of all sizes

Look at this tiny little cache Emily and her friend Katie found!

Geocaching!

More adventures in geocaching!

We recently met up at the park with two friends from Connor's Kindergarten class, and introduced them to geocaching as well (I love sucking people into my hobbies!)


One of my friends has been trying to get into geocaching, but hasn't had much luck on her own. While our daughters were at dance last week, three of us moms (plus Jared and Connor) ran an errand, and decided to check for any nearby caches. Pretty die-hard to be out in the RAIN looking! LOL


On the way home from dance, we stopped to check this cache out, and I realized after the fact that it was Em's very first time geocaching! Glad I'd taken a picture (even though kids were being GOOFY!)


I'd been told this would be a fun cache to find by three different families, so we finally made a point to drive out and find it after running some errands. Connor and Dan wanted to be dropped off at home first, so only Emily and Jared and I were out hunting. Definitely shouldn't have been in shorts and flip-flops for this one, but we survived with minimal scratches!


We have yet to find anything exciting/interesting inside a cache yet, but it's fun searching them out anyway! I'd love to find a "travel bug" at some point. We'll keep searching!

Geocaching

What can I say? I'm addicted! Last Wednesday, I was sitting in my car during Emily's ballet class, and I was puttering around on my phone when I had the *brilliant* idea to check my geocaching app to see if there were any caches nearby. There was one some 400ft away, so I dashed inside the studio, grabbed two other mom's from Em's class, and off we went on a hunt.

On Friday, the weather looked like it was going to be pretty decent, despite the prediction of rain, so Connor and I picked up his friend Cody and we set off on a geocaching adventure! This was the first cache we found. Turns out it was a "Travel Bug Hotel" cache, so we will have to go back and check on all the traveling "bugs" periodically to see if we can be helpful on any of their missions. There were tons of muggles (non-geocachers) out and about, and the boys and I were literally hiding behind the bushes as people would walk by, so as not to give away the location of the cache. The boys thought it was FANTASTIC!


The second cache we tried to find was a total bust. Recent entries into the "log book" showed a low rate of success, with a few people stating they finally found it about 60ft away. I'm determined to go back with a larger group and find it. The boys were pretty bummed we didn't find that one, so I took them to another one just down the road, which I'd already found with the dance moms, so we were guaranteed a successful attempt!

There were two more caches very nearby some errands I needed to run, so we headed out in that direction. This was our third find!

Goofy little gnome, which Connor was thrilled with (long story short, a couple years ago Dan's aunt thought Connor liked gnomes, so she bought him one, which he then became very attached to, and now he really DOES like gnomes...)


Our last find of the day!


At some point I want to get ahold of some little trinkets so the kids can have fun leaving stuff behind in the caches, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. We also have travel bugs to register for each of the kids, but we haven't gotten around to doing THAT yet either!

Geocaching

I've been hearing about Geocaching randomly for the past couple of years, but haven't taken the time to look further into it prior to a few weeks ago. While Dan was in Montana for work, I woke up early and couldn't sleep, so turned on the TV and was flipping through channels and came across an interview with the guy who created the whole Geocaching thing. After hearing him talk about it, I came out out to the computer and logged onto the website, started researching cache locations in my area, and started to get really excited about the whole concept, figuring it would be something fun to explore more this summer with the kids! I got some friends interested in it as well! We downloaded the Geocache iPhone app and started talking to other people who have done geocaching, etc.

My friend Jami and I were out running a few quick errands today and she asked if I wanted to try finding a cache (she's found two already while she was getting a lesson from a family friend, but I hadn't tried finding any yet). Turns out there was one hidden 150ft away from where we were running one of our errands, so we went over and found it!

There are TONS of caches just in my home town, and I know the kids will have a blast with this! We've already ordered the trackable "bugs" so we can create our own caches, and track the "bugs" as they move around. With the app, we'll also be able to try to find caches while on vacations and road trips, etc. I'm excited to see where this takes us!