Geocaching Geek Family

I know I have talked about Geocaching a bit lately but haven't really explained what it's all about...or what we find so appealing about it :)

Sure the short (slightly snarky) answer to the question what is Geocaching is that it is a game where the players go to Geocaching.com, get a set of coordinates and use billion dollar satellites to go and find Tupperware in the woods.

And while that is the basic truth of the matter, its alot more than that at the same time...

I mean to be fair sometimes you use those billion dollar satellites find amo cans in the woods too :).

But that being besides the point :) Matt and I got into caching around 2007ish, actually it was earlier than that but that is when we officially signed up with the user name we have now. We still have less than 100 finds to our name (blasphemous I know!) but we really haven't had a chance to cache much in the last two years...

So anyway...We got into caching because it got us out of the house being active, it was an excellent way to explore places we thought we already knew. (like *our park* the one we got married in :) )

And get to see new places that we go past everyday and never even know they are there.

It was a great thing to do when we were at a rest area letting the dog stretch his legs.

And something to do even when we were at Target running errands

And on top of all that it was a great way to get to and get to know the history behind the lesser known "must see" tourist attractions when we cache on vacation!

Now hiking (and or driving I suppose) isn't the only way to cache...there are a slew of caches available only by boat or kayak...for those who just can't get enough adventure I guess...we gave them a try and were pretty addicted!

Cassie even got a good start this past fall when we went to the Capital Region Annual Geocaching Picnic, but we made the mistake of bringing the stroller along...wont make that mistake with miss Ali! We will have the ergo for Cassie when she gets too tired and we will have the Moby for Ali to ride in hopefully we will have some good weather to get out there this summer!

Over all we have a blast caching and can't wait to get our girls out there having fun with us! After all not only is it fun, but it encourages wilderness skills, creative thinking, problem solving and physical fitness.

Wordless Wednesday - Peek-a-boo!

Some Fresh Air

Today was a nice bright sunshiny day so Cassie and I decided to get out there and get some fresh air. It wasn't warm by any means, but it also wasn't below freezing, nothing a few layers of clothing couldn't handle. So we bundled up and headed outside.

Thankfully daddy had snow blown a path in our back yard so the fuel oil delivery guy didn't have to struggle to get back to where our pipe is to fill the tank otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to get out there because while there is a ton of snow, its just not the kind you can walk through let alone play in thanks to layers of ice in between the snowfalls.

We brought out a ball with us to play with, but between the many layers of clothing, the boots and the mittens she couldn't do much of anything with it, but I think she liked just being outside the change of scenery did us both good.

I think her favorite part of the day however was watching Sirius play in the snow (little showoff that he is) she would just laugh and laugh at him. I think he was also happy to have humans out there with him!

It looks like its going to be pretty chilly till the weekend...not frigid by any means but not the kind of weather that the little miss would really like to be out in...but maybe, just maybe, if we ask really nice Daddy will snow blow another path to her swing set so we can swing out there next week. Who says we need to wait till spring to try it out??

Menu Planning Monday...

Well last week was a semi success!! We went out to eat once and ended up just skipping over dinner once AND even though I went to the grocery store with a list I still managed to forget sweet potatoes for my sweet potato chicken enchilada, oops. So here goes...

Monday: Sweet Potato Chicken Enchilada

Tuesday: Shepherds Pie

Wednesday: Pineapple Pork Chops (going to try something brandy new every week I decided!)

Thursday: Tacos

Friday: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup (this was excellent last time)

Saturday: Valentines Dinner out at the Melting Pot!

Sunday: Breakfast For Dinner

Monday: English Muffin Pizza's

Besides the menu planning today we have on tap

1) Clean bedrooms and kitchen

2) unpack 1 (maybe 2 not going to push it though) Tote

3) Make our Valentines!

4) Register for Tumbling Tykes

So time to get started!

Oakwood in the Wintertime

Today the weather was so wonderful (at least compared to what it has been...) I had the opportunity to go out with a friend and check out a cemetery that has been on my list of places to go to for a very long time now. Oakwood Cemetery in Troy NY is supposed to be one of the most haunted cemeteries in the State (possibly the country? not sure on that one but I will look it up later!). But that aside this place is simply beautiful, the architecture is amazing and the carvings on most of the stones is just incredible.

Now since we have gotten all of the snow and ice lately alot of the cemetery was off limits simply because we didn't want to trek through all the mess (though it didn't stop us from trying to find a cache...more on that in tomorrow's post) but we did get to find Uncle Sam's grave (yes THE Uncle Sam...he was a real person...) and alot of amazing architecture along the way.

This cemetery totally gave me new meaning for the word Hugemongous :) from the vantage points that we got to the place seemed to just go on for ever and ever, truly a city for the dead. And all we got to see today was a small portion of it. We do have plans to go back however in the spring time, when all the trees are blooming. Then we can make the trek over the hills and see the mausoleum section which I am told is simply incredible, where the mausoleums seem like mini mansions.

A little tid bit...

It's late and I'm tired, so I am just going to leave this little tid bit...

It's pretty amazing how a decent fitting bra and a great friend can brighten your entire day.

Maybe I will elaborate on that in another post...then again maybe I wont :)

Friday Firsts - Sledding!

Last Sunday the weather finally cleared up enough for us to take Cassie out sledding for the very first time! Over all I think she enjoyed it, though she certainly did not appreciate being dragged through daddy's foot prints :) once we got to where it was smooth sailing she was good to go (and or whenever she noticed mommy with the camera she was also all smiles...).

This was also the first time that we let her down to walk around outside, at first she didn't know what to think of the incline on the drive way, but she soon got the hang of it and was running all over the place

And I just had to post this video (don't worry there is no sound with it your speakers are (probably) working fine) It is best when viewed full screen then you can really see how displeased she was with being dragged through Daddy's foot prints...until she sees Mommy with the camera...I thought it was a classic :)