Camping and other Summer Activities

While the summer may have started out rather slow and lazy, it seems like it is now in overdrive, and we're trying to make sure we take enjoy the ride, because before we know it, Fall will be here.

Last weekend, we went to Munich to visit some friends of our who were having some folks over for a small birthday party. The waterslide was a big hit, and I was even more grateful that I could fit in Keith's shorts ;-)
Quinn liked having us 'bowl' him down the Slip 'n Slide rather than him having to run.
Some geocaching at home.
Two weekends ago, Quinn and I went camping. The weather was perfect, and we were able to do some hiking, geocaching, and playing.
I was super proud of Quinn when he took his beloved chips (he LOVES potato chips...I wonder where he got that from) and offered them to the guys in the next tent. They were grilling and chatting ... and I didn't even ASK him to do that.

But when he came back, I gave him a huge hug: Quinn truly understands camping!
The next pics are some miscellaneous pics from our cell phones. Below, Emily walking a friend's dog.
...I try really hard not to call it a cat in front of the kids...
Geocaching in Munich with one of Quinn's friends.

Geocaching

The kids were super sweet to each other on Saturday morning when they woke up...so I had to get out the camera. Unfortunately, it went pretty much downhill from here. Yesterday was a tough parenting day. Looking back, they were probably full of pent up energy, and with our crappy, gray, cold day, we didn't spend much time outside...
Reading to Emily. As with Quinn, she loves picking out books and plopping on my lap to 'convince' me to read to her.

The next few pics are about 2 weeks old: with the snow beginning to melt, it was perfect for making snowmen. Quinn, of course, 'helped' me, but I think I ended up doing most of the work. The two neighbor girls also came down to 'help'...and they did make a few heads, but I got stuck with the backbreaking work. And, I'll admit that I had a blast...with the kiddoes.

By the time we were done, we had 10 snowmen in the yard (do you see the three guarding the goal?). One of the neighborhood kids asked if it was a soccer team. I then counted...and had only 10, so I said that it was a soccer team with one red card.

Emily getting in the action.

Eva gave me a Garmin GPS for Christmas...so that we could begin geocaching and adding a new twist to our family hikes. I hadn't heard of geocaching before getting the Garmin, and I was very surprised that Eva had even heard of such an activity and even more surprised that she REALLY wanted to try it out. (Quinn and Eva with our first 'find'...which took us 3 tries to find.)

Basically, for those of you that have never heard of geocaching, it is a new twist on treasure hunting with a GPS device. There are over a million 'caches' (basically tupperware boxes with simple 'things' inside, including a guestbook) hidden worldwide, and a few hundred within a few miles of our condo. Above, Quinn, Emily, and I with our second cache.

After the first cache, Quinn was super excited, and it was precious to see him randomly digging, trying to find the second cache.

The weather today was finally nice and sunny, so we took a small hike in an area with a 'multi cache' (basically, you have to go through a few intermediate points before you finally get the coordinates of the cache). This time, Quinn actually found one of the clues (that both Eva and I overlooked). He was SUPER stoked.

So far, Eva and Quinn have done all of the finding.

The beauty of geocaching is that it gives a new spin on being outside, and it lets us see new parts of our beloved forests.

If you are interested, http://www.geocaching.com/ is the main website for geocaching. Overally, this is a super family activity, and something we'll do more of...especially when the weather improves.

Quinn and Emily in their 'ship'.

When we were building snowmen, Quinn wanted to play baseball. Since I had no desire to chase the ball in the snow, I just threw snowballs at him to hit. Worked out great!