Ooops

I came very close to being monumentally stupid today. We were out geocaching, in the middle of the woods, when I found that I'd dropped my GPS somewhere. Let's pinpoint the ways in which I could have killed us all.

1. No one knew where we were. I need to leave a note for Dan before we go hiking so he'll know where we are if something goes wrong.

2. I drove down a road that was marked as "Closed Due to Flooding". My thinking was that as long as I went slow, I didn't have to worry about getting stuck. But I should have learned from the tragedy of the Kim family in Oregon. If you get lost, people won't look for you on roads that are supposed to be closed.

3. We headed out into the woods on something that wasn't really a trail, it just looked like one. I was trying to decide if something that looked like a clearing ahead of us was the actual trail when I realized that the GPS wasn't in my pocket anymore.

4. The only smart thing I'd done was mark the location of the car on the GPS before we headed into the woods. That way, if we got twisted around, we'd be able to find our way back. Realizing that I no longer had the GPS gave me a twinge of alarm at my previous stupid moves. We were not far from the car, but it was very much out of sight, and we'd followed a twisty route as we went over logs and around bushes.

I depend too much on the GPS to sort me out if I get lost. Obviously, that isn't smart. I also have to realize that I could get hurt somehow. I need to be smart and not go on some of these trails without either Dan or Janet with me. There are plenty of places that have regular hikers or ATV users, I need to stick to those and not go bushwacking into the woods.

This trail, which was where we should have been all along, was much safer. And where the kids found lots of rocks to throw.



Now for a laugh. The hike tired Claire out so well that she fell asleep in the middle of a diaper change. I was going to post a picture of her little bare butt sticking in the air, but I've decided to spare her that.

Other Saturday travels

I don't know what I was thinking trying to cram three days worth of outings into one day on Saturday. No wonder the kids were starting to melt down. Besides the reception, we also went on a two hour hike and spent a few hours at my cousin Jeanne's. She's another person who I can go years without seeing, but once we get together we just chat about everything and anything. We missed seeing much of her son, who's just a few months younger than Nathan, because he was napping. But her older daughter and my kids got to tear up the playroom for awhile while we talked. Maddie looks soooooo much like Jeanne.

The Great Outdoors

Since we're done with swimming lessons, we have some freedom to go out and about each day. Instead, we've spent many days home or at the mall. Yuck. Gotta get out and enjoy the great outdoors, and now that the Enbrel has kicked in, we can.

Found a great trail the other day that was converted from an old railroad bed. Nathan was more excited about the bits of rusted iron than the
geocache we were in search of. I just thought it was a great view, passing by a wetland and then into the woods. The cache was at a point where an old, abandoned road went through the woods, and we could just barely see the remnants of it. I'll go back with Dan to see the foliage and make sure to bring the camera.

Went on a second geocache hunt today. Had the camera this time, although it wasn't as scenic. But at least I could bring the stroller and our feet didn't turn black from the dusty trail. This is a town maintained rec trail that was built next to a golf course. There were hundreds of little frogs hopping around, and Nathan was very disappointed that none of them would be his friend. At least he got to take home a silly toy robot. Which he seems to be french kissing in this photo.


We've also found a great playground at the elementary school, but we really need to stop going there because.....
Nathan had made friends with the boy who lives across the street from our local playground, Sunny. But Nathan and Sunny had swim lessons at different times this summer, so we've barely seen that family since July. Today, I slowed down and and looked to see if they were at the local playground before going to the bigger one. Alison (hippie british mum) saw me and got the kids in their shoes to come play, only to find that we'd driven away. I've really got to learn to pick up the phone and make playdates.

Memory Trail

On August 13, 1990, a friend from college asked me to go to a concert with him. Thanks to the pouring rain at the show and the need to huddle together for warmth, by August 14 we were dating. We spent that first day at Lampson falls, making out for what seemed like hours. Good times. We've gone back many times over the years, but it was really great to go back as a family this time. 

Going on a Treasure Hunt

I first read about Geocaching at least a year ago, and thought it'd be a fun way to add some extra interests to our hikes when Nathan got older. People hide boxes, sometimes filled with toys and gifts, then upload the GPS coordinates on a website for other people to find. When we had the contract on a house with 8 acres bordering state forest land, we got a GPS for Christmas so we could hide a cache on our property. Oh well.
Finally took the GPS out today and found our first cache. A nice 40 degree day with a little sun and not too much mud. Someone hid a cache just around the corner from our house. We live near a public beach on a lake, and the parking lot also intersects snowmobile and hiking trails. Trecked a little ways into the woods, following a trail of tacks in the trees, and then found the cache a few feet off the trail. It was set up last Halloween and had some cute skeleten and witch lawn ornaments. Inside the box someone had left a Goofy toy in a Santa hat, Nathan has rechristened him Max (from the Grinch) and is totally in love.
There are at least a dozen other caches in the area, some on trails that Dan and I hiked 15 years ago when we first started dating. 15!!!, yikes. After we visit some more, I'll set up one and find a cool place to hide it.