Labor Day/Geocaching

This labor day Brandon was on call so we couldn't leave the city or really plan anything. It turned out to be a fun weekend though. We went to the pool (although these pictures are from a couple of weeks ago), fishing (yes Jeremy caught the most fish), geocaching, and raced rc boats, and the kids rode on some ramps a neighbor was throwing out. They also got a skateboarding rail with the ramps, but so far they've just kind of looked at it and commented about what they have seen on X games.

Geocaching 101

A friend of mine was asking what geocaching is, so if you haven't ever been geocaching keep reading. Joshua calls it treasure hunting. You can go to geocaching.com and find the GPS coordinates of a spot someone has left a cache (treasure), you can print out a map of where to drive to and then from there use a handheld GPS or a new cell phone with GPS to locate the cache. Our kids like to find the traditional caches where they can trade small trinkets like matchbox cars and fake teeth for something in the container. We accidentally went to a micro cache today where all you find is a mini notebook and a pencil to sign that we were there. They didn't think that was worth the hunt. When looking online for your first cache you want one with one star for easy find, one star for easy terrain, and most importantly a size that is traditional or larger. The small and micro finds usually don't have trades. The other fun thing about geocaching is finding and moving travel bugs. They are little bug coins that are numbered so you can track their progress online. The boy scout magazine had an article about a travel bug that went all over the world. For our family it is a fun reason to be outside and together, also the boys can walk for an hour without realizing it (although usually it doesn't take that long). The boys also love to trade. It is just as much fun as going to the store, and it's free. Oh, my last thought, before you go hunting look to see on the comments the last time that it was found and if there were a lot of people that reported not finding it. We went to one today that was not there. It looked like it was probably mowed over at one point. Our next step is to start a cache of our own. If we do we'll post it so the locals can go and find it.