Our First Geocaching Trip!!!

In the spirit of "talk like a pirate day" yesterday, we decided to hunt down a GPS device...  We were planning on trying our hand at Geocaching this weekend...  As luck would have it, the GPS just about jumped into our hands...  Unwilling to wait for the weekend, we got the coordinates to a cache near our home, and took off in that direction...

My husband was determined to figure out the handheld GPS device, which took about an hour and a half...  It was hilarious watching him get angry at it!!!  The kids enjoyed walking around the park and seeing various birds while waiting for daddy to figure out the GPS...

We were prepared to find the cache that was themed "patches"...  The kids would not let go of their plastic bags to put in the cache as they wandered aimlessly looking for anything...  They loved the scenery and the thrill of the hunt!!!

When my husband finally figured out the GPS, we were across the park from him...  He was yelling for us to come over to him...  The children and I thought he had found the cache and were a little disappointed (we wanted to find it together).  However, all his excitement was over the fact that he had finally gotten the GPS working right!!!

We were close, but not close enough...

After the GPS was doing what we wanted it to do, we found the right spot quickly...  So off the beaten path we go...  The kids (3 and 6) weren't too sure about it at first...  We found the cache!!!!  All 4 of us had to sit down and admire each item the cache hid so well for a few minutes and read EVERY entry in the log book...  Then while I signed the book, each child picked out something from the cache, replacing it with the item they brought...

Our 3 year old son took a toy dinosaur and left a toy truck...

Our 6 year old daughter took an Indiana patch and left a vintage Girl Scout patch...

My husband (the skeptic about all of this) couldn't contain himself and HAD to have a patch from the cache...  So he picked out a patch and left the letter F behind (a tribute for our family's first find)...

I chose not to take anything other than the thrill of the hunt and the overwhelming desire to go geocaching every spare moment I have...  However, I did leave something behind-a bag of seashells from Sanibel Florida...

We LOVED our first caching experience!!!  We are now hooked on it and are planning on caching this weekend when the 10 year old is with us again!!!

I love that my kids are learning to SHARE, enjoy nature, leave thingsbetter than the way they were found, and most of all enjoy family time together!!!  I highly recommend this sport to everyone!!! 

If you don't know what geocaching is or want to learn more check out the articles and groups here on Gather by veteran Geocachers!!!  I can't take credit for something they have written so well about!!!  So check out their articles and give credit where it is due...

Thanks to all the geocachers out there for your informative articles and helping us get hooked on this wonderful sporting experience!!!  We can't wait to meet other geocachers in the future!!!