We are full on into summer, and it’s great, but I’ve also been trying to find new activities for us to try out.

We used to letterbox in Colorado, and it was a lot of fun.  We tried to find a letterbox in the Japanese garden on campus the other day, but it was nowhere to be found.  We followed the clues really closely, but I think the box may have been moved.

I thought it would be fun to try geocaching.  I got an app for my phone and immediately had the information for several geocache sites in town.  I guess once upon a time, you had to look at the coordinates, use a compass and actually navigate to the site?  Now, I follow the line, and stay within the “cone” on the line to guide us to the site.  Pretty easy, except that once you are within 20-30 feet, you have to search carefully to find it.  People log their finds though and often leave clues, so when I had trouble, I looked at the log.  I was surprised by how popular geocaching is.  Both spots I went to had been found numerous times in the last few weeks, including by people traveling from other parts of the country.  I had thought it was popular, but wow!

I went by myself first to kinda scope it out.  The first one was by the closed down bowling alley, and I couldn’t find it to save my life, so I thought I’d try it again later.

One of the best things about geocaching is that it takes you to new places.  I found the second one next to Mercer Creek.  It was a beautiful grassy shaded area.

I spotted the geocache and then went home to get Davey (it was pretty hot already and so I thought I would make it easier on him.  I parked a little ways away so we’d have to follow the path to the geocache).

Geocaches are neat because there are little trinkets in there.  Very fun for a little boy.  You take a trinket, but then you have to leave one as well.  Davey had fun deciding.  He finally chose a little plastic hand clappy flappy thing, we signed the log, and then he carefully put it back where we found it.  (We left a CWU keychain behind.)

He was inspired, and he wanted to help me find the cache that I wasn’t able to find.

Here was the problem for us though.

We were pretty sure it was buried in that short cedar/evergreen shrubby stuff.  It was hot out.  There were spiderwebs – so I assumed spiders in there.  Cedar is scratchy and we are allergic.  On the plus side, I was not worried that there would be a copperhead in there waiting for me.  We looked around for awhile, but one of the clues suggested that we’d have to be willing to look low and get dirty.  We weren’t willing so we decided to come back another time.  More specifically, Davey suggested that David come with us and find it as he is a “warrior” and bigger and it would be easier for him.  Maybe we will try that although David loves spiders about as much as Davey and I do.

Then yesterday, a little boy showed up at our house.

Where did he come from?

He got a haircut and he just looks like such a big kid now.

He’s just a little guy though.  I got a new attachment for the hose, and he played and played and played with it.

He’s little for awhile longer.