Technical difficulties, part 2

Hello again. It's me again. At the library again.

So that means our computer still isn't fixed. It's "sort of" usable, but not on a permanent basis. It has some kind of nasty virus/trojan thingy, we think, and we've been seeing the "blue screen of death" very regularly. (Can you tell how technologically literate we are at our house?) Anyway, we have tried a lot of different things, and I think we're about to completely reformat it, which means we will lose everything. At least we won't lose any pictures, as they've been backed up to CDs fairly recently (thanks, Mom!) and beyond that, I haven't emptied the camera in a really long time. So we shouldn't lose any pictures. Other than that, there will just be a few Word documents lost that I would have liked to save. I think I will print them out, anyway, before we kill the poor thing. Then at least I'll have a hard copy, and I guess I could always retype them if I cared to in the future.

Oh yeah, and Karisa, if you don't mind sending me your weekly schedule chart again, I'll be needing another one. I have NO idea how to make all those little columns. Thanks! Y'all, this weekly schedule has been the best thing ever for me in the organization department (and there's really not much to it, but it's so very helpful). So feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment or etc, if you'd like me to send it to you and I will try...that is, if I can get it back!

Quick recap of our day today:

• This morning, we took the boys to "Construction Junction" at the local fairgrounds. There were all different types of heavy equipment that the kids could climb up into, honk the big air horns, etc. One of the dump truck owners actually let the kids raise and lower the truck bed with him up in the cab - way cool! Home Depot was there, and gave out free orange aprons and woodworking kits to each kid, so they could actually "build" something while they were there, too! Drake got a butterfly house kit and Levi got a fire truck kit. We started getting ready to build them there, but it was really windy, and we decided it would be easier to do at home, so we took them home with us instead. Anyway, we had taken Drake to Construction Junction about 3 years ago - back when Daddy was still a Heavy Equipment Operator, and was actually working there with his unit as a volunteer! Today brought back a lot of memories. The last time we went, our favorite Alaskans were there with us, and Drake and Jaedyn had a great time together. Drake loved it today too. Levi, however, thought it was too "SCAH-ghee" (scary), although he got over his fears a couple of times, at least long enough to go up into some of the cabs. Once he even honked an air horn! The trouble was, whenever he'd sit in one of the machines, he thought it was his own personal backhoe, or whatever. So we heard "mine" a lot. He wasn't a particularly happy camper.

• This afternoon, we worked in the yard. Drake and I weeded the flower beds, and Adam mowed the lawn for the first time since planting the grass seed awhile back, and our lawn looks fantastic! I'm not even kidding...super thick and green and beautiful. I know, I know, there's no way it's going to look that good for long in this lawn-hating climate, but it's pretty nice for right now. It's being watered as we speak...errr, type.

• After we finished the yardwork, we helped Drake make his butterfly house. What a blast! I didn't expect it would be nearly as enjoyable as it was. Adam helped him with the nailing part, and then I helped him paint. He really and truly painted the whole thing by himself - and it turned out great! - but I helped him get the paints ready, showed him how to wash the brushes out, made sure he didn't paint the patio, etc. I took a lot of pictures, so once I get our computer up and running, I'll post some. (Gosh, I have promised a lot of pictures now...baseball and this butterfly house for sure, but I'll have to check over them once I get them off the camera and hope it jogs my memory!)

Well, I'm off to do a couple of other things on the library computer, and then head home to my guys. Happy weekend, everyone!

Schooling and misc. updates

I haven't talked about our schooling dilemma since I first brought it up at the beginning of February. We actually made a decision not too long after that, but it took awhile to get all the family notified. (I sound like a newspaper reporting a death, don't I?)

Anyway, not long after that post, we made the decision to homeschool next year. Originally, the decision felt more like the lesser of two evils, but since that time, we've actually become pretty excited about it! We're really looking forward to the opportunity to teach our own children! But, instead of the peaceful feeling of closure I was expecting, well...now we've got a lot more decisions coming up regarding exactly how we're going to do this thing! As many of you are aware (probably moreso than I was a couple of months ago), there are a lot of different methods or "schools of thought" about the process of home education - and even the purpose for it. Then beyond that, there is a giant sea of curriculum choices to wade through.

But, it's actually kinda fun! We're getting a pretty good idea of the basic approach we're planning to take, and starting to narrow down curriculum options. I have been wisely advised that one of the most important qualities in homeschooling is the ability to be flexible - if something just isn't working, try something else! I will try to take that to heart as we begin this journey.

Drake will finish out the year at his current elementary school, and we'll officially begin our homeschool in the fall. But we've already started working on some reading curriculum at home that's more specific to our own approach, and plan to do the same with handwriting before the year is out. We hope to continue both of those throughout the summer, and then begin the rest of the subjects in August. Drake also wants to learn to play the piano "for real" - so that's another summertime aspiration, to begin some official piano lessons (from me, to start with).

So those are our plans...but I must keep that flexibility thing in mind. (It's all subject to change!) I just wanted to give an update on what's been going on in the "schooling" arena, since I left you all hanging.

And I want to put this out there right now, too, since I'm thinking about it: I refuse to become a "snobby" homeschooler. I have been frustrated and hurt in the past, as a public school mommy, by certain homeschoolers who have implied that their choice was superior to mine, or that I somehow care less about my children than they do. I vow to never act that way. I do not believe that homeschooling is right for everyone. I do not believe that the way we do decide to do anything at our house is the only "right" way. I want to be a defender of anyone who has labored over their schooling options for their children (and of those who don't really have options), no matter what decision they make. Each individual and each family has a unique purpose and mission and place in the body of Christ and in reaching the world.

Okay, on a little lighter note! These some other needed updates, since I've been such a bad blogger lately:

• Baseball practice has started for Drake, and he's loving it! I'll try to post some pictures of that soon.
• Levi had his 24-month appointment (finally) and he has been officially approved a healthy two-year-old...he doesn't have to go back for another check-up until he's three! This is really a blessing for us, as he's been in to the clinic for check-ups every one to three months since he was about nine months old, because of slow weight gain and slower-than-average crawling/walking. But he is progressing at his own "normal"- and he is perfect just the way God made him!
• Drake's AWANA Games were today (kinda like AWANA Olympics or something), and it was a lot of fun to watch. Drake's group placed second, and he was very excited about it! Unfortunately, I forgot our camera. But I was able to borrow a friend's camera for a picture of all the kids at the end, so I'm happy about that...even though I tripped and fell on this weird lip around the gym floor when I was trying to take the picture! It was very graceful, let me tell you. I was glad the borrowed camera survived the fall!
• Ummmm...I think that's it. My sweet Levi is waking up from his nap now, so I'm signing off. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Celebrating our Levi!

Today was a full day! We planted grass seed in our front lawn and weeded the garden this morning, then went to the park on HF to play for a couple of hours. Adam threw the parachute guys for Drake and a bunch of other kids, Adam and Drake (and then Adam and I) played catch, and Levi ran and climbed to his little heart's content. After that, we headed home for Levi's nap, during which Adam and I finished up Levi's cake and wrapped gifts (seems like we're always procrastinators!)...and generally prepared for his little party.

After the birthday boy woke up, the festivities began - only Levi wasn't in the best of moods. The first thing he wanted when he came downstairs was to play with one of the balloons we'd hung up, which promptly popped and scared him! It took him a little while to recover from that. Opening gifts seemed to stress him out, too. He finally relaxed a little more when it was time for cake and ice cream, even blowing out his own candle (to his - and our - surprise)!

Then with a full belly, he set out to play with some of his new gifts, specifically his wooden stacking vehicles from our favorite Alaskans, and his new "road rug" from Gr & Gr S. "Buddy" and Daddy played dart guns with some of Drake's awesome new Nerf darts he received for his 6-1/2 year birthday (Drake and Levi are exactly 4-1/2 years apart, to the day...so Drake got a little gift too). Anyway, the dart game escalated (which you can probably imagine if you've spent any time around Adam and Drake) and pretty soon they had set up a small target shooting range on the coffee table with little road signs from a wooden vehicle set that Levi was playing with on his new road mat. At least a solid hour was spent after that with all three of them very involved in the target shooting game! Levi doled out ammunition while the big guys shot the two Nerf guns...then when all 25 darts had been expended, Drake and Levi would run and collect them all and set the signs back up to be shot again. What fun!

Anyway, I have SO many pictures I want to post from today, but only a limited amount of time...so you're getting the condensed version on the photo end, for sure. It was a full and eventful day, and we spent it cherishing our youngest son and brother - how blessed we are to have our Levi in this family!

Always my helper, this one will do any chore I ask - even picking up his toys - with enthusiasm! He really wanted to rake the topsoil this morning, but I thought a pushbroom might be a better choice for him, and he was willing to compromise!

Big Bro got the honor of raking, which he seemed to enjoy...at least for a little while!

Bucky seeding the lawn

Keepin' everything Even Steven...

My darling baby, you are adorable!

At the park - Drake and Daddy played catch for a little while.

Climbing with some help from Mommy!

Ready to blow out the candle on his car cake! (Check out the flames...it was a fun cake to make!)

Setting up the "targets"!

The shooting game!! I have so many pictures from this (and video too) that I might blog about it again another day if I get a chance. It was hilarious!

.

We are so thankful for Levi and his role in our family - what a joy he is! Tomorrow morning at 6:11 he will officially be two years old. But if you ask him, "How old are you?" he will already answer, "Two!"...we've been practicing for a week now!

O Beloved Weekends!

This past Saturday was a lot of fun. After bringing Early Bird Levi into the "big bed" to have some morning playtime with Mommy and Daddy, we all got up and had banana pancakes for breakfast. Then we went geocaching! It was a beautiful day outside. I am convinced that people who choose to live in Florida must do so for the spring weather!

Here are the boys and I with a cache. This is the 2nd (and final) stage of a multi-cache. (The first stage was a fake rock with coordinates for the next stage inside.) It took us down a pretty little wooded path to this pond. Sunny day, light breeze - it was gorgeous!

Levi's favorite mode of transportation!

My handsome, helpful big boy

The loves of my life!

That cache happened to be near the air museum, so we stopped to look at the planes outside. The boys had a blast running between and under all the different aircraft. Drake also got to practice his reading skills on the placard signs describing the different planes, and he was pleasantly surprised that he could sound out most of the airplane names.

Mommy and the boys at the air park

Drake and Levi checking out the F-15. I think. (I'll have to check with Adam when he gets home from work tonight to make sure I'm right about the plane. The obvious difference between F-15s and F-16s is that one of them has two of those tail fin things that stick up in the back and the other has just one. Now I can't remember which is which...)

Daddy and his boys

Tough guys

What a memorable occasion - Levi's first tattoo ever! This one must go onto the blog to be remembered for posterity...

Drake, the experienced tattoo-ee (pretty sure that's not a word!), was trying to get Levi to flex into a muscleman-type pose for this picture. Levi was a little dazed and wondering why the "sticker" on his arm wouldn't come off.

Way cool dino tattoo!

Levi finally caught on to the joy of the moment, flashing one of his winning smiles and saying "Too!" (Translation: "Tattoo!")

Groundhog adventures

In honor of Groundhog's Day, Drake made a groundhog "hole" out of two umbrellas with blankets over the top. Levi must do everything that "Buddy" is doing, of course. So the two of them played groundhogs for quite awhile the other day. Here they are, inside their "hole"!

I think this one is poking his head out! I wonder if he sees his shadow...

Well, he scurried back into his hole, so it looks like six more weeks of winter!

Almost 2!

Wow, Levi's birthday is really sneaking up on me! He'll be two on February 17, and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. He is less and less "baby" these days, which is a little sad, but a lot of fun, just the same!

So. I'm trying to decide how much of a big deal to make out of this birthday. For Drake's 2nd birthday, we had a big (for us) party with four other families over to our house, had a barbecue, outside games, cake and ice cream, decorations, etc. And the cake was awesome (and a lot of work, by the way!) - a big tractor made out of two 9x13 flat cakes. (Yeah, I really should post pictures, but that would require going through some old photo CDs and putting the pics on our computer first, which I don't have time for this morning - errands beckon.)

Anyway, I've got that mental image of Drake's 2nd birthday party in my head, and I can't help but feel a little guilty that I have no desire to duplicate that (or even come close) right now. One point to consider, though, is that Drake's "comparison" party also had a going-away-party feel to it, because it was right after we'd received short-notice orders to move down here, and it was an opportunity to get together with all our most special Minot friends one last time.

(Actually, I think this whole dilemma might fall under the Things That Parents Shouldn't Do List, in the category of Comparing Children.)

So I've got a hankering for a small, family party for this birthday...Levi isn't old enough to know the difference (although Drake is). I don't really want to decorate, and plan a menu, and be a hostess. (And I don't want to spend the money to have it anywhere but here - we're saving for plane tickets.) I think it's laziness, to tell you the truth! I'll have to think about it some more over the next couple of days, I guess. Mommy-guilt vs. laziness...mommy-guilt vs. laziness...

Of pencils and hammers

Well, there hasn't really been a lot of action around here lately - it has felt like we're perpetually busy, but not with anything really blog-worthy. We've also got several big decisions on the horizon that are clamoring for attention; my mind is spinning with all the pros, cons, and what-ifs involved in making them. So even though I'm feeling a bit "foggy," I want to take a few minutes to post some more pictures. Hope you enjoy!

You may not be able to read this. Drake did it with a red colored pencil, which makes it a little faint. Anyway, one day when I was feeling really sick and miserable (and frustrated because the illness was dragging on and on, and I wasn't getting anything done), Drake scooted off into the playroom and came back with this precious card. The front reads "I LUV MOME". Inside it says "I HOP MOME FELS BETRS SOON". (Translation: "I love Mommy. I hope Mommy feels better soon.") Awww, what a sweet and thoughtful boy he is! That was certainly enough to make me stop feeling sorry for myself and appreciate the blessings in my life!

Drake and Adam put together a wooden model, and then Drake colored it with markers and crayons. He is very proud of his eagle!

Adam put up a long shelf in the playroom (the playroom is half of our garage - I'll have to post pictures sometime) in order to have more space to put things up out of the reach of a certain (fairly destructive) little someone in our home! The little someone was very interested in helping Daddy with the shelf.

It's handyman Levi himself!

The Dino Zoo

Here's a very good day in the life of Drake.

During Levi's nap, Mommy, Daddy, and Drake built a dinosaur zoo, complete with gift shop and dino-poop scooping robot. (Come on, what human would want to do that dangerous job?) Here is our finished product.

Notice the stairs; that's Drake's masterpiece. As are the "boats" at the bottom of the stairs to shuttle people around. (Apparently the Dino Zoo is in Venice?)

Big and little T-Rex pals...the big one wouldn't really eat the small one, it just looks that way in this picture.

Ready for customers at the Dino Zoo Gift Shop!

Apatosaurus (a.k.a. "Longneck," if you're a Land Before Time fan)

.

We had a pretty good time! (And Mommy and Daddy are improving our K'nex skills. It's much harder than it seems like it would be!)

Entering a new era

And that would be?

One where I am never pregnant again, unless we fall into the .05% failure rate for vasectomies. Yep, Adam went "under the knife" on Thursday. (Don't worry, I won't give TMI about it...and he's totally fine with this information being thrown out into blog-land, by the way!)

This has been a decision we've thought and prayed and talked a lot about over the past several years, and probably the most difficult decision we've ever made. We've perhaps never made a more permanent decision than this one, either, other than the decision to get married (which was made when we were quite young and tended to think less about decisions), and the decision to have our children in the first place (all of whose pregnancies were very much planned).

Growing new life is truly miraculous, and I don't have the eloquent words tonight that are necessary to convey my feelings about how precious and beautiful and magical it is to carry and give birth to a child. But pregnancy is also difficult for me. I have pretty severe morning sickness (which makes me nearly useless for well over half the pregnancy), and I've suffered some nasty post-partum depression, as well.

Given those reasons, as well as many other factors, we've decided to bow out of the child-bearing arena, but not without some longing glances behind and a lot of incredible memories. Being forever thankful to God for the four opportunities I've had to carry His precious creations within my body, I praise Him again for the two incredible little people we've been entrusted to raise! What an amazing privilege, and yet a great responsibility, to be Drake and Levi's parents.

We're also not completely sure we won't be adding any more children to our family, as we're considering the possibility of adoption and whether or not the Lord may have another little person in mind for us. It's an exciting prospect, but either way, we praise Him for the glimpse into following His will that this decision-making experience has given us.

Oh yes, one last comment... After much discussion about how to approach the subject of the vasectomy with Drake (and oh, it's a loaded topic if you've never thought of the implications on the mind of a 6-year-old), we were leaning toward explaining the surgery and its purpose to him...we tend to be pretty up-front type parents and have never shied away from tough topics (death, suffering, childbirth, private parts, etc.) in the past. But finally, we decided this might not be the best way to introduce the birds and the bees, as it could possibly leave a small child wondering if Mom and Dad were having second thoughts about babies because of him or his brother.

Sooo, the plan was that Daddy was going in for an "appointment," and then for a few days, Daddy would "not be feeling so well" and would be resting in bed a lot. However, when we were all leaving for the clinic early Thursday morning, Drake asked me, "So when are you going to pick Daddy up after his surgery?" Surgery? What? Where did that come from? I tell you, little ears don't miss a thing. We still don't know when it was that we slipped up and said the "s" word in front of him. So anyway, I found out later that his class at school heard that his daddy was having "eye surgery" and then he apparently told a neighbor that it was "stomach surgery"! So Drake ended up with a crash course in the mechanics of a vasectomy, but thankfully the question of why someone would want to do this was never posed.

Oh, my sweet Drake, you are adorable beyond words!

Brothers

I had the distinct pleasure of watching my boys play together last night. It was rough, "boy" play, and so heartwarming! Levi calls Drake "Buddy" now - we think he's trying to say "Brother" and that's how it comes out. So he was running and Drake was chasing and catching him, carrying him over to the couch and flopping him up onto it - over and over and over - amidst squeals of "Buddy!" and peals of laughter. What a joy they are!

Drake went back to school this week, and "Buddy" was a constant topic of conversation for Levi and me yesterday. Levi would approach me, asking, "Buddy?" and nodding his head with his eyebrows raised, as if hoping I could somehow produce Drake from behind a chair or something. I would remind him that Drake got on the bus this morning, and the bus took him to school (a place Levi has been many times). That would satisfy him for a few minutes, and then it would begin all over again!

This week will be a little stressful for our family. Adam and I have severely nasty coughs, and there's a lot going on for us. I may be able to elaborate at a later date. But anyway, I am taking the time now to be truly thankful for my caring husband and my two precious children, and to renew my mind to the idea that I am only the steward of these children. They do not belong to me, but to the Lord. Raising them is the most important and difficult thing I will ever do, but they are not mine. Our family rests in the hands of God; may He shape us as He wills.

I will hold on to these sweet moments of little-boyhood and never forget them.

Catching up

Is it possible to actually catch up? (That is supposed to be a rhetorical question, so if you think the answer is "yes," I do not want to know about it!)

I think we're finally over our second round of the flu - not the stomach flu this time, thank God! Unfortunately we've all (except Levi) got a nasty upper-respiratory thing going on. Still. But, at least we're now functioning at about 90%, and for me, that means I get to try to catch up on housework and thank-you notes and Christmas tear-down and et cetera...that could have been done in smaller, more manageable chunks at an earlier date if I hadn't been achy and sleeping for much of the past week or so.

However, since it's nearing the end of the day, I wanted to get one more post in before 2009 is upon us!

So here are a few photos from the past week or so...

Okay, so this picture was actually taken in August, by my sister when she and her husband were visiting. However...it was in my hometown newspaper on Christmas Eve as their Reader's Scrapbook photo of the day! And I quote: "Brothers Drake (last name), 6, and Levi (last name), 1, peer out the window of their (our town), Fla., home on a rainy day. Aunt Crystal (last name) of (hometown) snapped the photo while she and her husband, Jeff (last name), were visiting the family in August. Drake and Levi's parents are Adam and Melonie (last name), formerly of (hometown)." (Whew. That was a lot of editing.) So anyway, my kids are totally famous now. Only problem - for their fame anyway - as my husband's grandpa pointed out: "it looks like they put the wrong end in the paper." Well. At least they have cute backsides.

Super job, Aunt Crystal!

Our family before the Christmas Eve Glowstick Service at church. (Yes, that's Glowstick, not Candlelight!) The kids all sang at the beginning of the service, and it was so cute, and actually very uncharacteristic of our church to do something so, well, traditional. I was about to post a picture, but realized that would include posting scads of little kids' faces on the internet without their parents permission - not cool - so I'm refraining. Although I really wish you could see how cute they all looked!

Some gift-opening action! We do presents on Christmas Eve, stockings on Christmas morning...just in case anyone wonders about the date on the photo. It was a lot of fun! Particularly entertaining for all of us to watch Levi. At first he wasn't too interested in ripping paper off of stuff until he realized that every time paper was ripped, a new toy appeared! Wow! He got down to business after that.


After Levi went to bed, Adam and Drake played with Drake's new K'nex! Drake was very excited to have received them, and even more excited to have Mom and Dad play, too.

We were all feeling pretty well on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (and then got sick again on the 26th), but the guys just got too tired from all that building, I guess! I was on the phone with my mom and dad, and noticed the two of them conked out like this. Very sweet! They were both escorted to bed soon after...


Hey look! Socks in our stockings! Seriously cool stocking stuffers from Grandpa and Grandma S. They are so creative. The boys are both stoked about their new socks - they each got 3 new pairs (the others are very similar)!

Adam's turn for paybacks! Drake and I both had fever and chills, and spent the evening lying like this on the living room floor. Levi never wants to be left out of anything, nor does Heidi!

Drake and I were still sick a couple of days later, but slowly starting to feel a bit better. Here's Drake, catchin' some Zs on the couch, and Levi (of course) trying to do exactly the same thing his brother is doing. Heidi (of course) wants in on the action!

.

So I think that's it - a week of exhaustion and illness and fun, all rolled into one. Oh yes, add in a visit to the emergency room and the loss, and recovery, of the diamond out of my wedding ring!! Yeah, can you say amazing? Adam found it, but God totally gets the credit for that one. I was taught by Adam's Grandma Jane many years ago to stop and pray whenever I lose something. (It was lost train tickets at the time. And they were found quickly.) You'd be amazed how often my lost items are found! So anyway...

.

There. Now at least my blog is caught up! Can't exactly say the same for my life...

Some little boy "cuteness"

While the "photo shoot" I had today went a little less than smoothly, I have to say I can't get enough of these guys! What a pair they are...and what boys they are!

Big Bro, handsome and charming as always...

...and Little Bro, who would only smile when he was saying his new favorite word - mine!

Getting them both to look at me at the same time was, well, nearly impossible.

Oh, there's one!

And another good one! I'm so thankful to be doing this in the age of digital cameras, or I would have given up long before I ever got two smiles at the same time.

.

.

We've had a fun past week or so, and I have every intention of posting pictures of at least some of our activities...decorating the tree, neighborhood parade, school concert, living nativity, and Christmas lights, to name a few. We will see. Our focus is narrowing a bit in these last couple of days before Christmas to focus primarily on the birth of Jesus. May these precious boys grow up loving and serving Him with all their hearts!

Adventures in Geocaching!

I've mentioned geocaching a few times on here, so I thought I'd give you all a peek into this fun family activity! Geocaching is sort of like a world-wide treasure hunt in which you use a GPS (Global Positioning System) to hunt for coordinates where someone has hidden a "cache" or container. Anyone with a GPS can participate, both hiding and finding caches. You must first log in to the geocaching website and register - it's free! Then you can do a search for caches in your area and load the coordinates into your GPS for the ones you want to look for. After that, you're ready to go geocaching! (You would be amazed how many caches are hidden all over your city or town and the surrounding areas!)

When you find a cache, you sign your name and date on the log (paper or booklet) inside, and if there are items inside, you can trade for them. We often find things like toys, small games, coins (foreign or specialty), carabiners, magnets, and other knick-knacky stuff. We recently traded for a dollar bill folded origami-style to look like an elephant! Creative stuff. Some items are "trackable" online - they're called "travel bugs" (or "geo-coins" if they're coins) - which means they have a special number issued and attached to them, and each time a person finds and re-hides the item, its progress is tracked online. It's fun to find items that originated on another continent, and it's fun, also, to place trackable items in faraway places. Adam has placed trackable items from here into caches in both Washington state and Washington D.C.!

Some caches are larger, like ammo boxes or large glass mayonnaise jars. These larger caches are called "traditional" caches. Some are smaller, like film container-sized and even smaller. These are called "micro" caches. There's a picture at the bottom of this post of a cache so tiny it's called a "nano" - all that fits inside is a tiny roll of paper. There are also other types of caches, but they're more rare. One is called a "multi" cache, because the coordinates lead to the first in a series of caches that can only be discovered by finding them in order. We also did one recently that required solving a mathematical puzzle to figure out the coordinates to the cache!

(For a more extensive explanation of geocaching from Wikipedia, see here.)

Anyway, once you have a GPS, geocaching is totally free, other than the gas you use driving to your locations. So it's super inexpensive, and so much fun! The benefits are many. We like the thrill of the hunt - working together as a family (or often, a daddy and son) to be sneaky and track down a hidden object! And it's good excercise when you're out walking or hiking around. We also like the fact that we find new parks and cool places that we didn't even know were there before! Finding out where in the country or the world trackable items have come from is another fun aspect! And once in awhile, we've bumped into other geocachers and made some "friends" in the geocaching world.

Here are some pictures of recent geocaching adventures:

Adam and the boys did a lot of caches on Nov. 28th. (It was the day after Thanksgiving, and I decided to venture out on Black Friday. Whew. That was an experience. Don't know if I'll try that again anytime soon. Not being much of a shopper or a "crowds" person, it's not exactly up my alley...the only alluring factor is the good deals! But anyway, I digress.) Here is one they found at the beach!

One in the woods/brush...

...and one in some rocks!

Here are some of the treasures they found and traded for! (It's always a good idea to keep a little bag of "junk" in the vehicle when you're going out geocaching - trading fodder is quite useful sometimes!)

Drake and Adam went out again a few days later. They're holding a couple of trackable geo-coins they found. The object on the floor in the center is an empty turtle shell they found while hiking around that day! Pretty cool! None of us had ever seen one before.

Here are the boys and I after finding a tricky and creative cache on a short geocaching expedition after church. The name of the cache was simply "89" - it turned out to be a large, flat magnet on the side of an electrical box with alpha-numeric stickers reading "AT9". (They totally had us for a long time because the "fake" stickers on the cache magnet looked a lot like the real stickers used by the power company to mark the boxes, and you couldn't even tell the magnet was there!) So this cache consisted of only a magnet, with a paper "log" on the back to sign.

Here's Adam displaying the nano-cache he finally found (on the screen of the GPS)! He and friend Dave had been looking for this particular nano, off and on, for over a year and a half! Very tricky. It's magnetic and completely blends in with its surroundings!

Here's a close-up view. Wow! Now that's tiny. (Adam calls this one his "nano nemesis"!) This was his second nano find. The little white roll on the side is the tiny paper log that fits inside...and it was really a tight fit!

.

.

So that's a quick glimpse into the world of geocaching! I encourage anyone with a GPS to give it a try - it's lots of fun!