Week in Review

We celebrated the Light of the World.

We played Pente and Spin the Dreidel (per the kid's request).

I worked on my rug!

Hannah painted and wrote stories.

Josiah played with his dinosaurs.

And. . . we geocached!

(Ha, Ha, . . . it looks like a tiny Josiah balancing on the GPSr)

We logged the following:

1 failed attempt

9 found caches

1 mega geocoin

1 travel bug

1 letterbox

"Yes! I found two!"

Hannah's find

Interesting container

Interesting tree

Our first geocoin

Back of coin

Oh Lucky You, our first travel bug

Back of it

Peacock Place letterbox with mulitcolor stamp

Other tradable loot

"Where's the next one?'

Letterbox Find #2

Another hot July morning, make that late morning as we are not known to be early risers, especially on the heels of a fireworks night, and we are off to find our next letterbox.
This one is at yet another park, close to the library we frequent. We come with gifts for the geese. A flock with only one gosling has been in attendance since the young one's hatching. Upon arriving, we find that all of the flock has left, but this small family. The gosling has grown and is hardly distinguishable from the parents.

The gosling and parents

Tossing crumbs

Into the water

The fish are liking it, too

a nearby tree that caught my eye

Looks like a cypress

We move on, in search of our box.

Goodbye to the trio of geese

I wonder if they will be here next time

 Another successful find! This one was called Retirement is Great! There was a picnic table not too far away where we took our find to do the stamping.

stamping the log

We remembered to take something to write with this time, so we could put the date and our trail name - TeamRose in the log book.

I think they like gardening, golf, rubberstamping, and flying

Josiah blows the shofar (stick)

Josiah wielding his sword (stick)

Josiah took this picture of a bee fly he found

 Now we're ready to head to the library to cool off and check out some books.

Happy Trails! Until next time.

Our First Letterbox Find

Could this be the beginning of a new hobby?
I've been curious about this for some time and after checking the Atlas Quest wesite and finding some hidden boxes close to us, I thought we might give it a try.
Who wouldn't want to go in search of hidden "treasure"? Well it's not really a treasure, it's just a rubber stamp that you stamp your book with to record that you found it. The stamps are usually unique and hand-made.
We went out last night as TeamRose to our first "easy" find. Upon further checking, this one has not been found since September of last year and the bushes and weeds have taken over. We abandoned our search and went home to regroup.
Today, we set out again. This time with the new-found knowledge that you only go in search of boxes that have recent finds logged. This one was at a local park, too, where they probably don't let the weed get so overgrown.
This one was called The Girl Scout Law Series - Part 1 and had five boxes to find.
Our first box was a bit tricky to find and at first we thought it was missing, but then . . . AHA! We found it. But there was a problem. Park employees were preparing for a 4th of July celebration and kept coming nearby. One thing about letterboxing is that you just can't go pulling boxes out of hidden places with people watching. That would look kind of suspicious. So we went to our next box, so this will be a little out of order.
Number 2 was found by Hannah and she excitedly pulled out the contents and began stamping away.

#2 Friendly and Helpful

Hannah stamping our "clip book"

Putting her stamps away after stamping the logbook

We place the box back in it's spot. Now the coast is clear to go back to number 1. So we return and quickly remove the box before someone sees us.

Nimble fingers

#1 Honest and Fair (upside down)

After replacing that one, ( By the way that's very important to remember. You want the next person to be able to find it like you did.) we move on to box number 3.

Hannah looking at logbook #3

#3 Considerate and Caring

We are starting to really feel the heat of this July 1st day, but we only have two more stamps to find. We move on down the Greenway Trail and find number 4 and 5. We saw some walkers, runners, and bikers go by. I wonder if they ever saw anyone else stop on the edge of the trail to do rubber stamping.
Yeah, it's a nice break from your walk.

stamping along the trail

Josiah looking exhausted

Hannah looking exhausted

Josiah looking for something

Josiah being a bit crazy

#4 Courageous and Strong, #5 Responsible For What I Do and Say

A word of warning. To find the hidden boxes, you do have to leave the paved trail sometimes. Look out for poison ivy and other various dangers. I only encountered the one I mention and I hope I don't break out from my brief brush with the itch of death.
I'll be washing with Octogon soap for the next few days.