Spring/Summer Bucket List: Area Parks and Playgrounds

It's all about perspective when the kids are home from spring break. They go stir crazy if they don't have some variety. I am not one to schedule their every waking minute; I don't believe in overstimulating kids. Instead, I give them ample free play but plenty of options for other activities if they so choose. I am not a cruise director despite how much my Pinterest board pressures me. However, I do recognize when the kids are about to throttle each other and that's why I love the idea my oldest suggested.

E-man presented an idea to construct a bucket list of the parks and playgrounds in our town and surrounding areas. So we opened up Google Maps and made a list of all of the parks we could visit. We decided to make the goal to visit as many of these by the end of summer.

Over spring break we were able to visit 4 of the parks on the list. All of them we'd been to before but now we're crossing them off and making it all official and stuff ;) We packed picnic lunches and even my sister and my niece met up with us for a day of fun.

I have to admit, it's a pretty great idea and I am proud of E-Man for thinking it up. It also gives me an outlet to get out of the house with the kids at a moment's notice while turning it into an adventure.

Our list stands at 4/92 parks visited. I wonder if we will be able to cross them all off in the next four months?



*even though we may have visited several of these parks within the last few years, we are only counting visits beginning April 2014

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Two Million+ Tiny Treasures Hidden Around the World

I have a confession.

I LOVE geocaching.

What's that?

You've NEVER HEARD OF GEOCACHING?

Well, don't worry, you're most likely not alone as it's been a pretty well kept secret from muggles. 

Hubs and I stumbled across geocaching about four years ago when looking for new apps for our new iPhones. In a nutshell, you use a GPS device to find well hidden containers in the outdoors. Inside these containers is usually a log book and sometimes trackable devices you can move to other containers. The beauty is that you can participate in geocaching in just about every country in the world. There are over two million of caches hidden WORLDWIDE. (Yes, even in Antarctica).

map of caches hidden all over the world, screenshot from Geocaching.com

We went geocaching in our city recently. E-Man and Bear helped the Hubs with the seeking.

Once they narrowed down where it might be hiding they raced to see who could find it first.

E-Man had the find this time. 

Anyone with a geocaching account and a GPS device can seek and/or hide a geocache. Hubs and I have hidden about 10 since we started and we've found just over 400.

Caches can be in tiny containers or even in large ammo cans. The trick is in the disguise. Ian found this one behind the guardrail. We signed the paper log with our geocaching name and then replaced the cache for others to find.

If you're interested in becoming a "cacher." The first thing you should do is watch this video called, "Geocaching in Two Minutes." The Lackeys at Groundspeak have done an excellent job of putting together "how to" videos. 

If you're sold, sign up for a geocaching account and choose your GPS device. Groundspeak has apps for iPhone ($9.99), Android ($9.99), and Windows Phone (Free as of posting time), or if you have a handheld GPS, you're ready to go!

After you find a cache and sign the paper log, you will need to sign into your geocaching account online as well and "log" the find. You can do this directly from the geocaching app on your phone or you can wait until you have access to the internet from a computer.

If you have any questions, leave me a comment and I will do my best to try to answer them. If you're already a geocacher, tell us your user name or leave a link to your favorite find!

Happy Caching!

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