Another Saturday, Another Cache Day...

Keeping true to our word, Rick and I planned another geocaching adventure for our family this past Saturday. (Yes, even though it was the release day for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I chose to go on a family day trip and postponed the hour at which I would have the book in my anxious, greedy little hands... See? I'm not so neglectful and wanton when it comes to my own children...)

We decided to try for an area that was a bit far-flung but not quite as far as the previous weekend. After perusing the Geocaching website for some fun-sounding caches located in areas with less than 3-star ratings for "terrain difficulty" we finally decided on a cluster of caches located about 45 minutes away. The best part was the lure of beautiful scenery and plentiful waterfalls, which we knew would appeal to all three kids.

The area we were headed for is in the "hilltowns" where restaurants are not exactly plentiful or even clustered in distinct downtown districts (don't blink you just missed downtown: post office, vet office specializing in large farm animals, and if you are really lucky a gas station with a mom-and-pop convenience store in a building that looks like it is held up by the overgrown shrubs around it...or perhaps by magic like The Burrow?). So, we packed a picnic lunch and a few snacks, consulted the maps and then headed out the door.

The first cache site was supposed to have two separate, yet closely spaced, caches to find. We followed the directions for the first and found a parking area in a state forest that was at the head of the trail. The trail itself immediately went down at a steep angle as it followed the course of the stream. There was fencing all along the edge of the trail to keep people from meeting an untimely demise at the bottom of the ravine. This made the trip to the cache much more enjoyable since I did not have to spend every second telling the girls to be careful and fearing with every ounce of my being that they were about to go careening off the cliff at any moment. As we followed the fence we stopped now and then to enjoy the rushing river and the little waterfalls way down below (on the other side of the very safe fence). At one point we must have missed a slight fork in the trail because we ended up at a dead end where fence met large rocky outcropping:

Hmmmm....the GPS indicated that the cache was still at least a bit further along the trail somewhere. Rick doubled back and yelled for us to follow. I took a quick picture from this dead end overlook and then look up and saw Rick and the girls on the other portion of the trail above me:

After a short period of time Rick consulted the GPS and pointed the direction off the beaten path that we needed to take. The cache was not too hard to find (maybe five minutes of searching...probably a bit less) and the girls found some neat items in the box and traded for a couple of fun treats we brought along for trade. Having found the first one, we headed off in search of the second cache of the day which was supposed to be placed not too far away. We spent a bit longer following the trail and navigating with the GPS but it seemed after a while of walking and finding our way blocked by the rushing stream that the old adage "ya can't get theya from heya" fit the bill. So, we hiked back up to the car and figured we would try to drive back toward the entrance and see if another likely starting point made itself known. On our way back toward the state forest entrance we stopped at the forest ranger's office and purchased a yearly pass for the state parks figuring we'd be stopping a a few more before the season is finished if we keep up with our 'family fun' Saturdays. At the parking area near the ranger's office there was a large grassy area that abutted a small sandy beach and moderate sized swimming hole. It was not a particularly hot day but there were plenty of people enjoying the weather and the water and having picnics. We decided that it looked like the perfect spot to stop and eat our picnic lunch before continuing our caching journey. The girls were very excited by the water and wanted to go swimming but we somehow convinced them that the next stop was worth the wait: a place to splash in the river, climb around some big rocks and see another waterfall! In hindsight, it may have been the better choice to stay and let them swim there and just call it a day but we forged ahead with our plans and still had fun. And now we know that there is a great kid-friendly swimming area that is not too far to visit on another day! That is one of the beautiful things about geocaching. It allows you to explore places that you might have never have known existed!

The next cache was one that we had attempted about 3 years ago. We spent a good deal of time looking for it but could not locate it and upon returning home we realized that the cache had actually been missing for some time (and we learned the important lesson of reading the most recent logs for a cache to find out if it was still 'findable' before heading out to look for it ourselves)! The cache had at some point been replaced and moved to a new location and there were a few people who had reportedly found the cache in the recent past (within the last month or so). So, we drove to the site, unloaded the kids and all the swimming gear and headed for the trail. We hiked for about 20 minutes and we came, according to the GPS, very close to the location of the cache. However, the tree cover was pretty thick and so the GPS was having some technical difficulties picking up signals. After about 15 minutes of looking A decided that she needed to go to the bathroom and her delicate sensibilities were not about to let her attempt to do so in the middle of the woods. So, I took her back to the parking area where there was (thankfully) a port-a-potty and Rick (with E in the backpack) and R continued the search. We agreed to meet back at the parking lot and then head to the falls. As it turns out, Rick and R were never able to locate the cache (strike two for us on that one). But, the girls had a great time splashing in the water and climbing all over the rocks at the stream:



Actually, the older two enjoy the splashing and rock-climbing and Rick and I were able to kick back a bit and relax because the youngest decided to enjoy a much-needed nap at that point:



It was a fun day even if the caching portion of it was a bit of a disappointment. We found only one of the three that we intended to find that day and we had no time and little energy left to go looking for any others. I guess that just means we save those other caches for another day - although I think after two strikes on that last cache we might just not bother looking there again!

On the way home we stopped in at a very old "General Store" in a larger town center located closer to 'civilization'. The older girls got to pick out a bag of candy (formally known as 'penny candy' but the cheapest item was the mini Tootsie Rolls at 2 cents a piece followed by the miniature Smarties at 4 cents a piece and the prices rose rapidly from there) and E and I shared a dish of Raspberry Rocky Road ice cream...yum! Dinner that night was a simple phone call to the local pizza parlor and the girls were in bed fast asleep by no later than 8pm after a fun and eventful day.

Ahhhhh....good times!


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In other news....

I got new glasses recently. My last eye exam was three years ago so I was way overdue for a check-up and my most recent pair of glasses were a bit bent and showing plenty of signs of wear. And as much as I love Harry Potter, I decided to go for a slightly different shape to my glasses to avoid any future comparisons.

Not the greatest picture ever...but it is meant to primarly show off the new eyewear. Thoughts? And please ignore the gray hairs and the crows feet. (Actually, I'm not really asking your opinion so just follow the adage you should have learned at your mother's knee: If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.)

Confessions of a Derelict Mom...

I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I will not give away any spoilers here for those of you who have not yet finished. Just so's you know!

The girls have been fed and dressed (but perhaps not bathed...I'm pleading the fifth on that one) since I got the book in my hot little hands. They seem to have kept themselves entertained for the most part - only the occasional screech or fuss has been heard and I've happily ignored it unless it seemed like it was heading for a bloodbath. But, I have not really paid much attention to them since I picked up the mail at 5:00PM on Saturday.

Yes, I have been a Harry Potter-obsessed and neglectful mother to my three young'uns these last couple of days.

But, hey, now I know the ending! And I managed not to stumble upon any spoilers online! Yay me - and to heck with responsibilities! Right?

It appears my children survived this weekend of neglect without scars (I hope). I mean, really, Rick was around to tend to any serious needs, right? And kids need time to play on their own without adult supervision interruption, right?

Sirius-ly Seriously.

Now I can get back to my regularly scheduled life and hope my girls will remember who the heck I am.

And pretty soon they will be begging for me to read them the next book in the Harry Potter series (cuz, you see, I think the main reason they let me get away with having my "nose in that book" - yes, that came direct from R's lips - all weekend was because they desperately want to know if they are old enough to hear beyond our current bedtime story, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)! I think I've successfully created a new generation of Harry Potter/J.K. Rowling fans in our household...

Long live J.K. Rowling!!!!!!!!!

(See? No spoilers. Now - if you haven't already - GO FINISH THE BOOK!)

Family Fun Day!

Rick and I recently discussed whether or not to try to fit in another family vacation this summer or not. We talked about the possibility of perhaps spending some time in the White Mountains or going to the New Hampshire shore for a few days. In the end we decided that it might be fun to do a bunch of day trips in the local or semi-local area. So we are making that a priority for this summer in lieu of a longer trip that would potentially be farther away. Some of the possible excursions included geocaching adventures in the surrounding wilds, or longer rides to the Berkshires, southern VT or Boston to do various kid-friendly attractions.

The other night we spent some time looking at the geocaching website for easy cache sites in the Berkshires. We actually found quite a few that looked fun (and had some interesting natural attractions to see) so we downloaded the list to Rick's PDA and decided to 'wing' it from there.

In the morning we made a hearty breakfast of pancakes, sausages, bacon and juice and tanked the girls up for the adventure ahead. We found some small treasures to leave in exchange for new treasures found in the caches and we piled in the car with a bunch of water, some snacks, and the GPS and off we went!

The girls listened to an audio book (Dinosaurs Before Dark, Mary Pope Osborne) on the drive to the Berkshires. And since I had yet to drag all the crap art materials out of the back of the car from our Virginia trip they were able to draw and make artful creations for the remainder of the drive.

The first cache site turned out to be a dud. The write-up about the cache did not include any information on where to start hiking so we used the GPS as our guide, but we were not able to find the trail head. In doing some research once we got home we found that we were actually located on the opposite side of a substantial river from the cache site so we were essentially barking up the wrong tree anyway. We hope to go back in the future and find that cache along with two others that are located in the same general area. Now that we know where to go to find the parking lot and trail head so we should be a tad more successful! So, after a short delay and missed opportunity at that cache site we consulted the PDA and chose a second site to attempt that was a short 10-minute ride away.

The second cache attempt was located on land owned by a private conservation organization and therefore we figured there would be a well-marked trail and probably some decent parking to boot. We found the parking lot easily and got E loaded into the backpack for this hike. It was a loop trail that climbed to the top of a large hill (coming from the land of sand dunes I would personally call it a small mountain but Rick would strongly beg to differ) and back down again and the trail meandered through a large meadow full of cows and even met up for a brief time with the famed Appalachian Trail. On the way up the small mountain hill we came upon this rather large rock alongside the trail that begged to be climbed on...


The girls did great on the climb up the top and once we got up to the overlook we unloaded E from the backpack to let her have a look around.


We searched around for the cache...



...and managed to find it pretty quickly.


The girls had fun looking through the cache box and choosing a trinket and we left a couple of new trinkets in their place. I signed the log book and then we explored the overlook some more and happened upon a small wild blueberry patch that only yielded a few berries each but was still fun to find. There were a few odd blackberry patches that we found on the way but none were ripe yet. If we make it back next year we'll have to try for early August and get the blackberries in season!

Rebecca took this picture of Rick and I at the overlook...


After the hike back down to the car we drove to nearby Great Barrington to grab some lunch. Rick had done a bit of research and found that there was a local brewery/restaurant in town so we headed there for some grub. Rick enjoyed a nice brown ale called "Old Pluto" with his lunch (and I picked up a growler of the stuff for us to take home and enjoy since I was designated driver for the day). As a treat I got a HUGE slab of chocolate cake after lunch...



... the damn thing was too big to fit on the plate! I ate some of it and shared some with the girls but I literally took home about two-thirds of this piece of cake. Insanity at its best!

With full bellies we got back in the car and decided that we would try for one more cache before heading home. (Nothing like the 18 cache days that Tuxbaby has managed recently, but hey, we do what we can! LOL)

Rick consulted the PDA and found a cache site located near a river with a waterfall. We knew the girls would enjoy a splash in the river and the cache description indicated that the cache was not far from the parking area so we figured it was the perfect end to the day. The cache was indeed fairly close by and we found it without much difficulty. The girls made their trinket trade and I signed the log book and then we got down to the serious business of playing in the river! The first area we chose to let the girls loose in seemed a bit risky for little Miss E so she was stuck in the pack and none too happy about it...



The older girls were having a great time, though...


Then we moved a bit further downstream and found a great little area with a small pool, no rushing water, and large boulder to shelter and more or less contain E (with a little help from Mom-turned-baby-gate). I stripped E down to her diaper and let her have a go at it...



The older girls ventured a bit farther afield and got a bit damp but certainly had a ball...



They really want to go back (or at least to another fun waterfall or two) sometime this summer. We told them that could be arranged and we will plan to bring bathing suits and towels so they could really go to town!

The ride home was uneventful. R read some of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to herself, A ended up napping (guess the hike up that mountain hill did her in!), and E should have been napping but was way too overtired and ended up being kind of whiny and fussy for part of the ride. We got home and made a quick dinner and then got the kids to bed by about 9pm. Both Rick and I were exhausted and so glad to get to bed, but overall I think we all had a great day. And the kids were tired enough to actually sleep in past 8am this morning. Will wonders never cease?

I'm already hoping for more good weather next weekend and looking forward to our next "Family Fun Day"! Time to start scouring the maps and the geocaching website for more fun waterfalls...

How Do You Spell Relief?

T-H-U-N-D-E-R-S-T-O-R-M!

We had a pretty decent thunderstorm last night and a significant amount of rain. The plants got a good watering and we are finally getting a break in the temperature and humidity levels.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

Feels good.


I walked with Lauri this morning and, lo and behold, we could actually BREATHE. The air yesterday was so oppressive even at 6am that it felt like trying to breathe through a wet sock. Once home, I opened a bunch of window and threw on the whole house fan (wonderful creation - a must have if one does not have central a/c!). The cool morning breezes are now flowing across me as I type and the temperature in the room has dropped by about 8 degrees in the last 10 minutes!

I might actually chose to go outside today. A good day for a trip to the park and a picnic. The girls have been asking to go to this nice big park a couple of towns over where they have the usual playground equipment but also a sprinkler park, little train ride, bumper boats, and a petting zoo. I think today might just be the day to take that little jaunt. It might actually be on the cool side for taking advantage of the sprinkler park, but we can certainly find plenty of other things to do there!

I'm very jealous of all the people who have already seen the new Harry Potter movie. Rick and I are hoping to go out for a date night next week -- it's been far too long since our last one and we still haven't been out to officially celebrate our 12th anniversary! So, the plan is to do dinner and then go see HP #5! And speaking of Harry Potter (who isn't these days with a book release and a new movie in the same month!?) I decided to go online and pre-order the new book so that it arrives at my house on the 21st. However, my one issue is that it has been so long since I read the books that I'm feeling the need to try to reread the first 6 before the release so I can keep the facts straight! Not sure I'll succeed but I'm nearly finished reading the third book to the girls and I just started the fourth book last night. I think I will stop reading Harry Potter to the girls with the end of the third book since things get a lot darker with #4. They are not going to be happy about that since they know that #7 is coming out but I am afraid of creating fodder for nightmares for one or both of them. And surprisingly (or not), I'm more worried about R having nightmares than I am about A who just has a completely different kind of personality. In fact, upon seeing the trailer for the first movie, A was very much ready to watch the entire thing - no fear - whereas R looked spooked out at the sight of the ogre and the three-headed dog in the few seconds they flashed on the screen. So, R is certainly not ready to view someone else's vision of the Harry Potter wizarding world and its varied and often gruesome creatures...

Wow - now the temperature is at a comfortable 73 degrees in this room and since I'm still sweaty from my walk I'm actually feeling a bit chilled. I just grabbed my first cup of coffee and so I'm going to finish up this post, drink my coffee and then head for the shower.

Enjoy your day - mine is certainly off to a great start!

Ups and downs

I don't feel very motivated these days. I can't even seem to muster up the effort to get a few pics posted of the latest VA adventure or the 4th of July festivities. I'm thinking that the heat and humidity is affecting my brain and my desire to move or think.

And the heat makes me want to drink a cold beer at the end of the day...which in turn makes me want to nosh on something...which means the scale is sliding ever so slightly upwards. Me no like. I seem to have a fair bit of luck in the late winter and spring with the weight loss efforts. I have good intentions and keep track of calories and try to work out regularly. It's the summertime that derails me and causes the backslide that often lasts into and includes the festive and food-filled holiday season from Halloween candy to New Year's toast.

Help.

I need to find some level of motivation to get back on track. I have gotten back to my morning walks for the most part, but I'm sorely lacking (but obviously not sore of muscle) in the weight-training department. I seem to need that component (combined with the calorie counting) to exact any changes on the scale. The walking is certainly good for maintenance but beyond that I don't seem to make much progress with walking. And the alcohol and the munchies are not doing me much good either.

CNN is falling down on the job

Hell must have frozen over but the story did not make the front page on the CNN website. In fact, I can't find reference to it anywhere on CNN or elsewhere.

But, it must be true.

Why, you ask?

Because ALL three girls slept in past 8:00 this morning!

I got back from my walk this morning and all was quiet. Rick headed off to work and I sat at the computer with my breakfast (farm fresh strawberries and whole wheat English muffin with Laughing Cow cheese spread...yum) and ate a peaceful meal while surfing my favorite news sites and blogs. Then, to add to the tranquility of the morning, I showered without interruption or the background cacophony of screeching, screaming, fussing and crying.

It was a little slice of heaven this morning.

The girls are now awake and I'm enjoying a cup of coffee...dare I hope to actually finish it before it is stone cold? Now that would just be the cherry on top!

Home Sweet Home!

We made it home in one piece...or should it be "peace" (in that our sanity is still intact)!

I still have yet to get all the pictures onto this computer so I will refrain from bombarding you with a photo essay of our week. At least for now. I just wanted to pop on here to say that we made it back and we had a pretty nice week overall. More to come on the trip later...

For now the girls are finishing up a late lunch after we spent part of the morning running errands in town. Once they are done eating we will be going outside to start decorating their bikes. They are going to be in the tiny little 4th of July parade on the small common that is in our part of town. The main common downtown is where the big parade happens later in the day but this little morning parade is a tradition in our part of town and has been going on for over 100 years. It consists of kids in costumes, kids on decorated bikes, a farm animal or two, a small band of bout 4-6 instrumentalists, and a few ambitious families who actually build some moderately elaborate floats that are pulled by small tractors. After the parade people eat picnic lunches on the green and they do races and other contests. And all the kids who participate get a prize to take home - usually a choice of pinwheel, Frisbee, or some other such small trinket/toy. The girls look forward to this parade every year and in the past they have dressed up in costumes but this year they want to decorate their bikes (fine with me given the timing of our vacation this year). R just learned how to ride her bike without training wheels - although we need to put in some practice time before Wednesday on proper stopping technique! LOL Should be an interesting parade...I hope she doesn't crash into any innocent bystanders!

OK, the girls are ready to get going on decorating their bikes and we need to try to get as much done while E is still napping!

It's great to be home (and to have my in-laws home from their month-long vacation to the West Coast!). Time to settle into our summertime (lack of) routine...