Hidden Treasures, a guest post by Kathleen
A couple of years ago my husband came home from work with an idea the whole family could do together: Geocaching. This would mean we would have to go on hikes, up hills, and into the woods. Considering the fact that we are not a woodsy type family and we don’t like to go camping at all he was surprised when we agreed to give it a try.
Our first geocache was on our son’s sixth birthday. It did indeed take us into the woods and we were climbing over tree branches, going here, there, and everywhere. We went around trees laughing and talking the entire time until we found the geocache: The Hidden Treasure! We were so excited when we finally made it and got to open the treasure to see what goodies might be found. We also brought along our own treasures incase there was something we saw and liked so we could exchange. Geocaching became a family Saturday event for a couple of years. We truly looked forward to doing it.
There was one geocache that we did where we found a travel bug. A travel bug is a toy or object with a metal tag attached that you can use to track it’s progress across the world on Geocaching . You are allowed to remove it as long as you put it into another geocache in a different area.This particular one was a rubber bat on a string. We had a great idea! We were going on vacation that Summer to Branson,Missouri and we knew there was a geocache there as well as caves that we could take a tour of. Our great idea was to take the bat with us to the caves and then find the geocache and put it in that one. We were so excited about this adventure! We had a lot of fun taking that cave tour and we had just as much fun doing that geocache in Branson and giving Batty its new home. We also liked the Hidden Treasure that was in that geocache!
We did this for a couple of years and had fun doing it as a family. We had many, many laughs while on our outings and we were able to get some exercise in as well. The real Hidden Treasure was the time we got to spend as a family.
To learn more about Geocaching
Attached picture is of our family at Marvel Cave in Branson, Missouri. Our daughter is holding the travel bug “Batty” Batty was last seen in a geocache in Ohio.
Kathleen Smith is a mother of 3 and lives in Upstate New York. Kathleen is the author of Marriages & Miscarriages: One Woman’s Personal Experience available in paperback as well as on most ebook readers (http://bit.ly/mamkindle). She has a desire to share her story in hopes that it will help others understand what feelings one has when going through miscarriages. You can learn more about Kathleen and her book at kathleensmith.org or follow her on twitter @srkbear
A Dash of Domestic 
We’ve been wanting to try Geocaching… it sounds like so much fun!
Its a lot of fun but we have been so busy we haven’t had the time to do it in a very long time
Thanks for the great post Kathleen! I think my husband and son would enjoy this!
Makes me wish this was around when I was a kid!
I bet you and your wife would have fun, even if you’re not kids anymore!
I know right !
We really enjoyed geocaching too…thank you Kathleen for reminding me of the fun times we had with this hobby…Sandy [your sil]
lol, at first I was think hey I know a Sandy then I was trying to figure out what sil meant. I figured it out 🙂 . Your welcome and it was my pleasure
Thanks for commenting Sandy!
Had never heard of this, sounds wonderful. And what a great activity to do as a family. Lovely post, thanks so much!
Thank You so much! It was a lot of fun. We were surprised at how much we enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone . 🙂
What a fun activity! I’ve heard bits and pieces about geocaching before, but never a full explanation. Makes me want to look into it on our upcoming road trip… thank you for sharing this! 🙂
Oh I think your family would love it!
Sounds like a fun activity for your trip. 🙂 I bet my nephews would enjoy it.
I’ve been thinking of doing this with the family sometime. Sounds like so much fun 🙂
It does sound like a fun activity. I’m wondering if my 13 year old would participate.
It is a lot of fun and a great way to do something with the family that doesn’t involve tv or the mall
If your 13 year old is willing to give it a try I think he will like it
It is a lot of fun and a great way to do something with the family that doesn’t involve tv or the mall