Seek and you will find (Kit's title, I'm leaning away so I won't be struck!!)

Our newest family hobby and possibly the next Marzipan Incident (drum roll, please) geocaching. Do you know what that is? I hadn't heard of it much, maybe a mention here or there until Kit (collector of new hobbies) began to be interested. It is essentially a treasure hunt. We are given a coordinate (latitude and longitude) and with our GPS we go to that location. Once there, the search is on and we try to find the "cache" or treasure. It is usually a box with a log book of geocachers who have located it and sometimes filled with objects. You are allowed to take an object if you leave one of greater or equal value.

Our first geocache experience was across the bay in Daphne. We received the coordinates for a small, obscure grave site located behind a car dealership. This cemetery dates back to the 1700's. There are not a lot of grave markers due to the fact they were originally made out of wood and have since rotted away. Someone created cement crosses with what little information they had from the previous wood ones, sometimes only a first name or last name. Josiah was saddened and intrigued at a cross of a little girl only 3 years old who had died in the early 1800s. Josiah was pleased to take a tiny green plastic monkey from our first cache and left a valued seashell. Kit found this cache quite quickly and even quicker, we became hooked.

Kit was on duty and had to work all weekend, so he was given Monday off. With Josiah out of school for a teacher prep day, it was a perfect day to try our hand at more geocaching. The boys were SO excited. To them, it is the ultimate-the opportunity to sneak around, look under, in and around bushes, etc. and to find the elusive hidden treasure. The boys collected their "gear" (note we are SUPPOSED to be secretive about this), I packed snacks and water bottles and we were off. We proved our ineptitude on the first two attempts, but the boys were not discouraged in the least.

On our third location, Josiah hit the jackpot. This cache was also located in an old cemetery, located downtown Mobile. It is a large one with an entire section for the confederate soldiers lost during the battle defending Mobile in the Civil War. Again, my boys were interested in the history of what we were viewing. The unknown soldiers bothered Jos. It made him sad no one knew who they were to "write" their name on their stone. I overheard him telling Gavin that he knew Heavenly Father and Jesus knew who they were and that they would be resurrected soon. I had to chuckle when he added "you know, with the dinosaurs". After we looked around a bit, we headed off to another cache site.

This last one was a progressive series of coordinates to find the final cache. I really enjoyed it. It is on a local nature walk and the cacher was creative with the locations of the serial coordinates. We got exercise, wore our children out and spent wonderful family time together. My boys thought they hit the veritable pot o' gold with this cache. Along with the log book, there was treasure galore. It was a tough choice between a bell, bouncy balls, a wiggly plastic skeleton, a toy car, beads, etc. Josiah and Gavin each left a treasure behind, a toy penguin and a toy lizard and claimed their choice loot. I had to veto Josiah's first choice-a bone...not a plastic bone, but a real bone bleached white with dried out marrow. I didn't want our hands on something, or someone's bone...uggh! Of course my child wants something like that-"but mom, it is probably a dinosaur bone!"

I'm excited for this new family hobby. I hope it will continue to be something we can do together, even when my boys are big, stinky boys. Maybe it will up my cool factor in their book.

If you're interested, check this out

Our secretive little boys in their "gear"

Josiah with his cache find

Typical pictures of my "special" family
(aren't we photogenic)

Monument to the Confederate Dead

Cute boys!
(Note the candy corn stuck to Gunner's collarbone, not just Mommy survives on candy corn alone)

Josiah protecting his "do" from random drops of rain
(again, aren't we photogenic)

The search

The tired, but treasured end (I know, cheesy pun)