What a day! (with added pix)

Wow! What a day! We had a nice, quiet, fun family day. We did a new but rather surprising little hike. We were hoping for a longer hike but with our late start, it was just what the doctor ordered. It began and ended at a creek so the dogs and kiddos jumped in, cooled off and played a bit.

We ate our snacky packed lunch and left just as the afternoon rain was moving in. As we were leaving, a bear started to run out in front of our truck and stopped. We pulled over to try and get a picture but he decided to make a break for it behind us, climb a tree so he could get across the barbed wire fence, and took off up the hill. Sadly, these three butt shots are the only shots we got (and from my cell phone)...

After all the fun, we went home and got a short nap. Why is it that rain always makes me so sleepy? The kiddos watched Nancy Drew, we had jimbalaya for dinner with some yummy canteloupe I picked up at the Sunflower Market and then we ran to get the kids' picture IDs for 4H. The day ended with us walking our road tonight picking the brand new wild raspberries growing all over the property. Yum! Tomorrow we'll have to come prepared and bring some buckets! The sunset is beautiful and it was a nice, quiet, peaceful day. I love these kinds of days. They bring a sense of order among our crazy lives. I'll try to post some pix soon!

Geocaching

We've been out enjoying our summer weather. Yesterday, we did a community service project for 4-H and cleaned up some overgrown horse trails. It made me think more about geocaching. We've even hit a few geocaches lately, gotten in a few hikes and soaked up a few rays along the way. We've been geocaching for years but haven't done as much of it as we would like. Plus, being in a new area, we have a brand new canvas to cover. Ever done any geocaching? Curious to know more? Here's the scoop...

Geocaching is the world-wide hunt for hidden treasure. It begins with a GPS, a computer, and a love of exploring. Then you go online to http://www.geocaching.com/ and sign up for a free account and then find the caches closest to you. You can purchase an annual membership for cheap and get access to more caches but it isn't necessary. There are different icons and descriptions that appear that you can use the legend to understand. Basically, a "1" means it is easy peasy, you should be able to drive right up to it, and a child can do it. A "5" means you better be in shape, make plans and tell someone where you're going, and don't take little Johnny. Some are urban, some rural. We have a huge trail system less than a mile from here with hundred for the finding. Some, called macros, are large and contain little, trade-able treasures that the kiddos will dig. Others, called micros, are anything smaller than a business card. I have seen some the size of a nickel. I've also seen some disquised as tree branches or pinecombs. Talk about hidden treasure! There are rules, too, like where and how you can hide a cache. For example, you can't place caches in national parks or state parks or bury it. Anyway, once you find your caches online, you can either download them to your GPS or manually enter it. We've started using the free applications and GPS on our Droid phones and made geocaching a little more, well, mobile. Take a glance at the descriptions and you're ready to set off. It's a great excuse to get out and explore our beautiful world! I'll leave you with a few pictures of MacGyver, Ike and Izzy and the loyal stead, Tank, on our last geocache/hike. I took some cool pictures of flowers, too, but I'll put that in another blog! I just saw that there happens to be 13,000 geocaches within 100 miles and over 1,000 within 10 miles. We better get movin'!

This is close to where the geocache was hidden in a camouflaged plastic container:

Three hour tour

The kiddos and I decided to go on a short hike yesterday after church. It was a beautiful 75 degree day. We packed a lunch and some water bottles and drove about 5 minutes down the road. The hike was beautiful but grueling, going straight up a wet creek bed for a mile on a little used trail. We only saw 2 people as we started the trail and they were coming down. And then it dumped us out onto a well-used hiking/biking/horse-back trail and we suddenly didn't know if we should go left or right. I have a Verizon Droid phone with no less than 6 apps such as compass, Geobeagle, Googleearth, Altimeter, etc. You would think a person would be able to figure it out with at least a compass. Unfortunately, the best I could do was know that I needed to head west back to the Jeep. And then we got to this spot that overlooked downtown Denver...

And then we stopped a biker to ask him where the trail comes out. I have a pretty good idea that it would end up about 5 miles south of where we were parked and we would have to follow the road 5 miles up the curvy mountain road. We took a vote and decided to just turn around and head back the way we came. I've always contended that my knees hurt worse going downhill than up. We all agreed. But we made it back safe and sound 3 hours later a little muddier, scratched up, and sorer than we started. All in all, a wonderful day!