what a lovely Christmas we have had here in the
Crawford-Poxon/Carter house......
we shared traditions.....
we shared gifts.....
we shared laughter.....
we shared love.....
we shared time.....
and we had the most lovely of days.....
however, when Boxing day dawned we felt the
need to take a walk and so I suggested we try
our hand at geocaching....
I discovered geocaching a couple of years ago but,
as we didn't own a GPS while we lived in Australia,
we never tried it out....
however, my brother-in-law has a walking GPS
which we thought would work a treat, so off
we set.......
we all set out on foot..... even the littlest
got to join in...... and she was so very happy
about that.....
we walked and chatted and turned-up-stuff
and snuck into Nana and Grandad's garden on the way
to get a drink from the water tap {as I had forgotten
to take a water bottle with me for refreshment.....}
and two and a half miles later we unearthed our
first ever geocache.....
here it is, our first 'cache find'.....
evie got to choose a little gift from
the stash we found and we replaced it with a
couple of other little trinkets....
we wrote our names and a little message
in the log book and hid the box back where
we found it for the next geocachers to find....
evie decided that the best way to travel home would be
on someone elses back...... there's no flies on her that's
for sure......
the scenery, and the company, were lovely
and we decided that we were hooked....
so when Tuesday dawned we decided to have another
go and promptly found a geocache a short drive away
over Exmoor near a small town called Exford.....
we started the walk to the cache from the local
graveyard......
nothing like taking your nearest and dearest to
a graveyard for an afternoon stroll.......
and a little bit of gravestone rubbing.....
this was the lovely little country church where we started......
so very British don't you think.......
there were stiles to be negotiated......
here is imogen checking out the way through
for those with very short legs!
and here is evie showing everyone that her ankle is well and truly
healed up and she is, once again, able to do lots of running and jumping
over muddy puddles.........
over muddy puddles.........
when Imogen stopped to investigate one of the muddy
puddles, we all stopped too and watched her.....
isn't it lovely how the smallest one commands so
much attention...... we spend ages just watching her......
and after a lovely stroll through the countryside and a bit of
a treasure hunt the kids found the cache.....
we had a lot of fun looking through the log book,
enjoying other peoples' comments and then
isaac got to choose a piece of 'treasure' to take home and
we left a new piece of treasure in its place....
there was time spent nearby enjoying the stream.....
isaac made dams to change the flow of the water......
something he does whenever he comes across running water......
and much fun was had by all.......
imogen even fell headlong into the water but it didn't
seem to phase her, she just picked herself up and
carried on with squelchy wellies and wet pants......
if you haven't tried geocaching before, give it a go......
it is such a fun way to get out-and-about
with family and/or friends, or just on your own if you like,
and it's such fun finding treasure at the end......
this activity is a keeper for us, that's for sure.....
