What is geocaching?

I have made a couple posts about our geocaching adventures and have had a couple people ask me what geocaching is. Geocaches are places where people hide containers of things and post the coordinates of the locations on the internet for other to find using their GPS equipment. Geocaching.com has a good description on their home page. It says geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment. The treasures we find are mostly just little trinkets, small toys, key chains etc and something to sign saying we were there. When we find one we take something out and leave something too. The fun mostly is in the hunt and finding the treasure. They are everywhere. Some of the caches are easy to find and some are more difficult. Check it out.

Sandy beach in Dayton

My girl friend told me about a sandy beach she found in Dayton when she and her family went for a hike. It is real close to our house and is complete with sand, sea shells and a man made waterfall/dam. We are always looking for new places to hike and this place was an easy walk from the kids' school. We stayed on a dirt road the entire way.

The kids collected shells, threw sticks in the water and dug holes in the sand. Reminded me of when we would go to the ocean in Mendocino County in the winter time. Of course it wasn't as beautiful as the ocean. I imagine we will be spending some time here this summer. I wonder how much water this little beach will have then being that the river in Dayton often has a trickle amount of water flow.

The wind picked up on our walk back to the car and we were freezing wishing we had our winter coats. The spring like weather we have been enjoying is turning back to winter this weekend.

Who is that brown haired lady?

I've been growing out my hair and blond highlights too. Thought I'd let my hair get back to normal color. Didn't realize how dark my natural hair color is because I've been lightening it for so long. To help cover up the over grown blond highlights my girlfriend that does my hair put a semi-permanent brown with blond color in it. I had to hurry home to get Jayce to school so she put the color in, put the shower cap on me and sent me on my way. I hoped the car wouldn't break down on the 45 minute trip home and wondered how many people noticed me and pointed. Anyway, I washed it out at home and was shocked at how dark it was and swore to never leave the house until I washed it lighter. Jayce and Megan told me when they first saw me how much they hated my hair and wished it was still blond. That wasn't much of a confidence booster. I kind of startled myself in the morning when I looked in the mirror for the first time. I forgot my hair was brown.

More hills and more geo-caches to find

We found more geo-caches in Dayton on the hills behind Santa Maria Ranch that were quite a bit more challenging but still fun. We had to do a lot more hiking up steep hills but the the kids were troopers and whined just a little. Colton even made it on his own most of the way. There was a dirt road part of the way but the rest was just climbing up the side of the hill and some was straight up. This was our first cache. I knew it would be especially hard for Colton with the steep drop off at the bottom so just Blake, Megan and Jayce found this one. The container was very wet and rusty so they didn't get a treasure there.

Colton hanging out waiting for Daddy and the kids to come off of the hill.

We hiked a half a mile from the first geo-cache to the second one we found. It was a bit harder to get at. We had to go up and across the side of a hill to this road and still quite a ways up to the geo-cache spot. We were all happy to be on the road.

The kids found a wall walking turtle in this cache. They felt they really scored.

You can see the cache box under the tree where we found it. And onto the third cache a quarter of a mile away from the 2nd cache. It was harder to get at being that we mostly had to go straight up a hill. You can see our van way down behind us. It's one of the little specks on the right. Colton had to be carried small portions here and there. Mom and Colton so happy we made it to the top.

Here's where we found the last cache. It was a real rocky place. The high rock outcropping was stacked plates of rocks.The kids likes climbing on the rocks.

View from the high spot we hiked to.

Valentines Day

We had a Valentine's Day full of love. As is our tradition, our food was pink today. For breakfast the kids had heart shaped toast with jam and strawberries. Since the kids' favorite meal is breakfast we had pink french toast, pink scrambled eggs, and strawberry milk for dinner with strawberry short cake for dessert. We didn't open valentines from each other and grandparents until after church so we could all be together. Blake has early morning meetings before church so we planned to give him a surprise "heart attack" all over his car but he ended up staying home from church with a sore back so the kids put hearts all over the house and him instead. For FHE we made valentines for grandparents. The kids did a good job.

We've had a lot of valentine cookies this year. Megan made some for our FHE treat and then Colton made them with his preschool group the following day. The kids had friends over and more cookies to frost and decorate. What's not to like about sugar cookies, frosting and sprinkles? Even Jayce likes them and he mostly hates sweets.

We had a secret valentine this year that dropped this plate of yummy valentine cookies off on our door step. When I went out to pick up the plate of cookies all of a sudden the giver of the cookies bolted from his hiding place in front of our porch railing and scared me to death. I screamed. The scare was worth the treats.

For my primary class, I made love mice from Hershey's kisses. They turned out cute and were easy to make. I do wish I had smaller eyes.

Online Job Chart

Recently, my friend posted an entry on her blog about a wonderful online job chart. We like it so much that I wanted to share it on my blog as well. I think I've mentioned on this blog in the past that I've always had some sort of job chart for my kids in various formats. When the kids were all very young, 2 or so, the job chart was made of pictures of my kids doing the jobs velcroed to a poster board that they take off when they are done and put in an envelop on the back of the poster. Then they graduated to just pictures of various jobs that can be removed once completed. As they got a little older, I listed the job with words and pictures (for non-readers) on card stock and laminated (with packing tape or clear contact paper) and the kids would check off with dry erase marker when finished. One of our favorite formats for job charts is jobs written on 3x5 cards with pictures, stored in a card file box and when the job is completed they move the card behind the stack of cards. The cards also tell the kids when they are to do the jobs by having a sun or moon on them for morning or night and there are different jobs for different days. All of these job charts have been tied to some kind of reward for getting the work done (i.e. tokens or points that can be cashed in for an item or activity they want to purchase.) With this online job chart found here, I don't have to remember what day the kids do what chore or activity and I don't have to try to remember to pay them tokens or points for getting their jobs done. After the initial set up, all of that information is stored for you. The parent enters the chores their children need to accomplish (it's divided into morning and evening chores), selects the frequency for those tasks, and then sets point values to those tasks. The children sign into their own profile where they can check off their tasks and watch their point tally rise. When they get all their jobs done for morning or night, they get lots of cheers and clapping. There's a space for me to leave a note to any of my kids and it will show up in their profile when they log on. They can also "cash in" their points for various rewards that you (the parent) have set. The site has some suggestions but gives you lots of flexibility to create things that work for your family. You receive e-mails or text messages to keep you up-to-date on their progress.There's even an option to print out your job charts each week so there's a visual reminder. I also include routine activities like play dates and preschool so the kids know other activities they are doing each day. Now my kids are so excited about doing their jobs and are motivated by the rewards that are in place. What a great tool to teach our kids to work. Hope you find it as useful as we have.

Mom my ride

I got a laugh out of this video. It hit home. Okay my van isn't as bad as this but there are days. With three kids, it's a big enough chore to keep the house clean. Cleaning the van keeps getting put on the list of things to do in the future.