"Treasure Hunting" AKA "Geocaching"

Recently we went "geocaching" for the first time. For those of you who don't know, geocaching is a treasure hunting game where you use a GPS to hide and seek containers with other participants in the activity. They are hidden all around and people can take and leave items when they find the container. It's kinda really cool.

We met some friends at the river and walked along the trail with their hand held GPS. Tanner said we were looking for treasure.Upon hearing the word "treasure", Bailey got super excited and both kids had a great time. Here are some pics of our first adventure geocaching.

While walking along the river we found this cool little cave. We went inside a little ways, but not too far since we didn't have flash lights. But the kids loved it. Tanner told me there were bears sleeping inside and tried to growl to wake them up...(no self preservation instincts)

Kids and I inside the cave.

Bailey and I where we found one of the "treasure" boxes. Yep it was inside that crack in the rock wall. So fun!

The kiddos searching for the hidden "treasure" It was inside these tree roots...

I love this picture of the kids checking out their "treasure"

The little boy on the left is our friend Orion. He's such a sweet boy. Tanner loves hanging out with him.

Tanner caught a butterfly and I'm pretty sure it didn't survive the capture....

Love these wild boys

 

Hahaha... My son is frolicking...Silly boys!

The whole geocaching group. Thank you Heather and Orion for playing with us!

 

 

The kids loved this activity so much that we decided to go again a few days later with Daddy. We went for our FHE activity.

We drove over to "David's Trail" over by the lake and decided to take advantage of their

"eggs-travaganza". They had hidden really large plastic Easter eggs around and posted GPS coordinates telling you where to find them along the trail.

Upon getting to the park, all the kids wanted to do was play on the playground. So we did that while Dad got a fire going and then we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner.

Here is Bailey on the playground. She loved running across the bridge.

Kiddos with their yummy hot dogs.

Tanner roasting his hot dog. I love the pic with his hand over his face....I crack up whenever I look at it....My son is so weird. Why is roasting a hot dog so hard?

Big eaters

 

After getting dinner cleaned up we started the search for the Easter eggs using our GPS.

Bailey was convinced there was an egg in these leaves....(there wasn't)

Playin' peek-a-boo

Found one inside the stump.

Tanner was beyond excited and Bailey couldn't wait to get it open!

Tanner searching through the trees, looking for more eggs.  

The eggs were hidden pretty far apart, so we only found two but it's only because it was starting to get dark. We spent about 3 hours outside that night walking/running around and my kids slept soo hard that night!

Anyways, we've enjoyed discovering this new activity and really love getting to be outside in this beautiful Spring weather. Thank you to Heather Roethlisberger for turning us onto "Geocaching"

 

 

 

Happy Easter

There are so many fun things about Easter and I feel like we did our best to enjoy every aspect of the holiday. We spent a week discussing the life of Jesus Christ. We discussed each day of his life before Easter Sunday. It was really neat to remind us about our Savior's love and sacrifice for us. Tanner was so cute trying to learn and understand the word "resurrection". It was so funny! On Thursday we dyed Easter eggs. Tanner was pretty much a pro by this point, but it was Bailey's first time to dye eggs by herself. She was so fun to watch. She loved when we pulled the eggs out and they would be a different color. She's such a fun age right now, everything is a new experience and she is more than happy to try it all out.

Then on Friday we went over to a local nursery to see the live bunnies. They were offering free professional pictures. I couldn't pass of that chance, so we got the kids dressed in their Easter outfits and had their pictures done. I love the ones Chris snapped while we were waiting for the photographer to change SD cards.

 

 

  

After the pictures were over the kids went inside the nursery to follow their little "bunny trail". They hunted eggs and got candy. They loved it. 

 

 

After the bunny trail we headed over to Uncle Joe's house to dye more Easter eggs for our big party. Joseph got this "no spill" egg dye and the kids loved it. We dyed 3 dozen eggs, ate some burgers and then headed home. 

Then on Saturday night we took the kids outside and had them plant their magic jelly beans. We told them that only the magic of the Easter moon helps to make the jelly beans grow. So we helped both kids dig their holes and plant their beans in the ground.

Bailey was a little more than hesitant to bury her beans, she really really just wanted to eat them. 

Then we watered them and waited for the magic to happen.

Then came Easter morning, the kids ran outside and couldn't believe their eyes. Tanner's exact words were "WHOA- How did that grow????"

I love Bailey's face in these pictures...she looks confused and in awe at the same time. I LOVE IT!

Tanner was more than thrilled with the change in his beans. So fun! I love this new tradition!

Then we dug into their Easter baskets. Here is Bailey's basket- most of it wouldn't fit, so she really didn't get all that much, it just looks like alot when it's all spread out like this. 

Here is Tanner's basket. His is bigger and it holds a lot more. Trust me- he wasn't neglected.

Kiddos with their baskets. They loved it. So fun!

My kids adore books and they both pulled their books out of their baskets and immediately started reading them. Love that they love books!

After they finished going through their baskets we had our very simple Easter breakfast. (Chris was at work, so I didn't make anything real fancy.) Just powdered sugar donut bunnies. 

 

Then we snapped some pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits and headed out the door to go to church. I love this first picture. It so clearly shows my sweet kids and their sweet personalities. 

 

After a wonderful Easter Sunday at church, we came home to find two more Easter baskets on our back porch. Our sweet neighbor brought them over while we were gone and told me the Easter bunny left two extra at her house and she wanted us to have them. It's so fun to have sweet and caring neighbors. Then it was naps and Daddy came home. While the kids napped I made my part of our Easter dinner. Then we went to my parent's house. My mom was in Utah visiting my sisters, but we still had dinner there. It was delicious. Then the kids played outside because the weather was beautiful. I love this picture I snapped of Bailey. She's my sweetheart.

 

It was a great Easter. I hope everyone else enjoyed their Easter Sunday as much as we did. Love to you all!